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News Release Information

25-1102-KAN
Tuesday, July 08, 2025

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (816) 285-7000

Occupational Employment and Wages in Wichita — May 2024

Workers in the Wichita, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.34 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($55.41), architecture and engineering ($45.40), and computer and mathematical ($42.88). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.97), personal care and service ($15.29), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.04). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Wichita area included office and administrative support (11.3 percent), production (11.1 percent), and food preparation and serving related (8.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.6 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Wichita metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Wichita United States Wichita

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 27.34

Management

7.1 4.9 68.15 55.41

Business and financial operations

6.7 6.0 45.04 38.13

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.0 56.16 42.88

Architecture and engineering

1.7 2.7 49.99 45.40

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.6 43.12 35.41

Community and social service

1.7 1.6 30.31 24.71

Legal

0.8 0.6 66.19 41.00

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.9 31.69 24.52

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.2 37.04 24.96

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 6.6 50.59 42.73

Healthcare support

4.8 4.5 19.06 17.22

Protective service

2.4 2.0 29.33 24.53

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 8.9 17.32 14.97

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.4 19.01 17.04

Personal care and service

2.0 2.3 18.95 15.29

Sales and related

8.7 8.4 26.00 21.54

Office and administrative support

11.8 11.3 24.12 21.41

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 20.06 17.76

Construction and extraction

4.1 4.5 30.73 26.56

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.6 29.63 28.91

Production

5.7 11.1 24.08 27.65

Transportation and material moving

8.9 7.8 23.44 21.45

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Wichita had 34,180 jobs in production, accounting for 11.1 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $27.65, compared to the national wage of $24.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and systems assemblers (10,100), inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (3,360), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,890). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers ($43.84) and computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($43.05). At the lower end of the wage scale were pressers, textile, garment, and related materials ($13.74) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($14.10). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0048620.)

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 Wichita area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and systems assemblers were employed at 154.31 times the national rate in Wichita, and metal and plastic layout workers, at 50.87 times the U.S. average. Printing press operators had a location quotient of 0.95 in Wichita, 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 Kansas Department of Labor.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


Technical Note

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 are 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Wichita, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,474 establishments with a response rate of 77 percent.

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 Wichita, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Butler County, Harvey County, Sedgwick County, and Sumner County.

For more information

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

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Wichita metropolitan area, May 2024
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Production occupations

34,180 1.96 27.65 57,520

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,890 1.38 38.84 80,790

Aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and systems assemblers

10,100 154.31 31.13 64,760

Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

880 1.69 21.16 44,010

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

90 0.87 25.55 53,140

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

2,940 1.01 20.26 42,140

Bakers

200 0.43 15.34 31,920

Butchers and meat cutters

150 0.53 17.72 36,860

Food batchmakers

40 0.13 18.71 38,910

Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

190 1.48 17.97 37,380

Forging machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

90 5.19 24.92 51,840

Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

490 1.41 21.35 44,400

Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

320 2.27 20.96 43,590

Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

50 1.24 25.75 53,550

Machinists

1,510 2.55 24.76 51,500

Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

230 0.75 18.91 39,340

Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

180 0.70 18.73 38,960

Tool and die makers

510 4.62 36.59 76,120

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

1,660 1.96 26.49 55,100

Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders

90 1.27 24.51 50,980

Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

50 1.79 26.58 55,290

Layout workers, metal and plastic

570 50.87 36.75 76,440

Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

250 4.03 20.52 42,680

Prepress technicians and workers

90 2.07 20.61 42,870

Printing press operators

280 0.95 19.12 39,760

Print binding and finishing workers

110 1.56 12.24 25,460

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

360 0.93 14.10 29,330

Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials

40 0.67 13.74 28,590

Sewing machine operators

230 1.05 15.59 32,420

Upholsterers

(5) (5) 21.79 45,310

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

210 1.32 20.15 41,920

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

130 1.05 18.20 37,860

Power plant operators

70 1.07 34.06 70,840

Stationary engineers and boiler operators

70 1.11 30.59 63,620

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

230 0.90 22.81 47,440

Gas plant operators

40 1.15 36.90 76,750

Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers

380 5.45 43.84 91,180

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

360 1.42 25.94 53,950

Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders

60 0.54 23.37 48,620

Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders

70 1.31 25.60 53,240

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

290 1.43 23.89 49,680

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

60 0.61 22.12 46,000

Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders

70 0.65 21.96 45,690

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

3,360 2.86 32.13 66,830

Dental laboratory technicians

90 1.29 22.77 47,360

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

720 0.94 20.10 41,810

Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders

1,300 4.09 26.09 54,260

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

810 2.30 24.08 50,080

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

390 6.95 43.05 89,550

Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders

60 2.47 21.11 43,900

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

120 1.75 21.77 45,290

Helpers--production workers

250 0.75 20.37 42,370

Production workers, all other

240 0.43 17.44 36,280

(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Wichita, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0048620.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers.
(3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average.
(4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a 'year-round, full-time' hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data.
(5) Estimate not released.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, July 08, 2025