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News Release Information

17-785-KAN
Wednesday, June 28, 2017

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Topeka — May 2016

Workers in the Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.68 in May 2016, about 13 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; management; and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 9 of the 22 occupational groups, including healthcare support; office and administrative support; and construction and extraction. Conversely, seven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including sales and related; food preparation and serving related; and transportation and material moving. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesTopekaUnited StatesTopekaPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$23.86$20.68*-13

Management

5.15.156.7445.20*-20

Business and financial operations

5.25.6*36.0929.12*-19

Computer and mathematical

3.02.7*42.2532.31*-24

Architecture and engineering

1.81.3*40.5330.35*-25

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.835.0628.96*-17

Community and social service

1.41.7*22.6920.18*-11

Legal

0.81.0*50.9532.47*-36

Education, training, and library

6.26.326.2121.97*-16

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.0*28.0721.79*-22

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.96.738.0632.61*-14

Healthcare support

2.94.4*14.6513.74*-6

Protective service

2.42.9*22.0318.06*-18

Food preparation and serving related

9.27.9*11.4710.29*-10

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.23.6*13.4711.64*-14

Personal care and service

3.23.212.7411.61*-9

Sales and related

10.48.2*19.5015.61*-20

Office and administrative support

15.716.8*17.9116.46*-8

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.2*13.3715.73*18

Construction and extraction

4.04.5*23.5121.30*-9

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.2*22.4522.17-1

Production

6.55.717.8818.906

Transportation and material moving

6.96.2*17.3416.08*-7

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.
 

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Topeka had 18,480 jobs in office and administrative support occupations, accounting for 16.8 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 15.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $16.46, significantly below the national wage of $17.91.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive (2,860), customer service representatives (2,040), and general office clerks (2,020). Among the higher paying jobs were production, planning, and expediting clerks and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, with mean hourly wages of $27.37 and $23.96, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ($11.47) and tellers ($12.36). (Detailed occupational data for office and administrative support are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_45820.htm.)

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 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in several of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, government programs eligibility interviewers were employed at 5.6 times the national rate in Topeka, and mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service, at 3.6 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, customer service representatives had a location quotient of 1.0 in Topeka, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Kansas Department of Labor.

Note

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,425 establishments with a response rate of 69 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2016 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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 Topeka, Kans. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Jackson, Jefferson, Osage, Shawnee, and Wabaunsee Counties.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request . Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

18,4801.1$16.46$34,240

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

1,2601.123.9649,840

Switchboard operators, including answering service

1101.514.0629,230

Bill and account collectors

2601.112.6626,330

Billing and posting clerks

2300.616.2533,810

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

1,1601.016.7034,730

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

1901.520.9943,670

Procurement clerks

801.518.1537,760

Tellers

4901.312.3625,700

Court, municipal, and license clerks

1201.215.5332,300

Customer service representatives

2,0401.015.6732,600

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

5905.618.8139,120

File clerks

700.712.5926,190

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

3802.615.2531,720

Library assistants, clerical

901.212.5226,040

Loan interviewers and clerks

1801.017.7937,000

New accounts clerks

501.517.0935,550

Order clerks

600.417.5036,390

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

1401.319.2640,050

Receptionists and information clerks

6400.813.0627,160

Information and record clerks, all other

1601.217.8037,020

Couriers and messengers

300.512.4625,910

Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers

701.017.6436,690

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

600.423.7649,430

Meter readers, utilities

501.817.5736,550

Postal service clerks

901.520.5342,700

Postal service mail carriers

2901.123.4248,700

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

1300.527.3756,920

Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks

4000.819.3140,160

Stock clerks and order fillers

1,3100.812.8026,620

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

9501.921.0743,830

Legal secretaries

3202.114.5330,220

Medical secretaries

2600.617.5436,480

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

2,8601.615.2831,780

Computer operators

701.919.5640,690

Data entry keyers

1701.112.9927,030

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

2201.018.1537,750

Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service

2603.611.4723,850

Office clerks, general

2,0200.914.5730,300

Office machine operators, except computer

1102.413.8628,820

Office and administrative support workers, all other

1600.917.9437,310

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_45820.htm.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations 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.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2017