Workers in the Joplin, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.66 in May 2025, compared to the nationwide average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Jerome Watters noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($44.48), legal ($43.35), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($40.14). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.79), personal care and service ($16.26), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.63). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the Joplin area included transportation and material moving (12.6 percent), production (11.7 percent), and office and administrative support (10.3 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.7 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Joplin had 10,190 jobs in production, accounting for 11.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.90, compared to the national wage of $24.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (1,280), miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,150), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (770). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($32.56) and chemical equipment operators and tenders ($29.24). At the lower end of the wage scale were sewing machine operators ($16.15) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($16.23). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0027900/2025.)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Joplin area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, packaging and filling machine operators and tenders were employed at 6.03 times the national rate in Joplin, and adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders, at 5.24 times the U.S. average. Laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 0.92 in Joplin, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, and the Kansas Department of Labor.

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 530 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels; and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology is available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. Sample sizes and response rates by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area are available on the Additional OEWS data sets page.

Metropolitan area definitions

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The Joplin, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Cherokee County, KS; Jasper County, MO; and Newton County, MO.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

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