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News Release Information

17-786-KAN
Wednesday, June 28, 2017

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Wichita — May 2016

Workers in the Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.81 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 computer and mathematical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; construction and extraction; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including transportation and material moving; computer and mathematical; and sales and related. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

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

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$23.86$20.81*-13

Management

5.14.4*56.7446.00*-19

Business and financial operations

5.24.4*36.0931.51*-13

Computer and mathematical

3.02.0*42.2532.86*-22

Architecture and engineering

1.82.4*40.5338.72*-4

Life, physical, and social science

0.80.4*35.0631.73*-9

Community and social service

1.41.2*22.6919.34*-15

Legal

0.80.5*50.9537.24*-27

Education, training, and library

6.26.026.2120.48*-22

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.228.0719.96*-29

Healthcare practitioners and technical

5.95.838.0634.34*-10

Healthcare support

2.92.814.6512.96*-12

Protective service

2.42.0*22.0318.61*-16

Food preparation and serving related

9.29.411.479.81*-14

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

3.22.7*13.4712.82*-5

Personal care and service

3.23.412.7411.83*-7

Sales and related

10.49.4*19.5017.44*-11

Office and administrative support

15.716.217.9116.47*-8

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.1*13.3715.48*16

Construction and extraction

4.04.8*23.5119.75*-16

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.6*22.4522.802

Production

6.510.5*17.8820.37*14

Transportation and material moving

6.95.8*17.3416.23*-6

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Wichita 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—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Wichita had 31,200 jobs in production occupations, accounting for 10.5 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.37, significantly above the national wage of $17.88.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (2,520), machinists (1,810), and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (1,350). Among the higher paying jobs were metal and plastic computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, as well as petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers, with mean hourly wages of $33.49 and $33.35, respectively. Occupations at the lower end of the wage scale included laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($10.52) and production workers’ helpers ($11.53). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes_48620.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 Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in several of the occupations within the production group. For instance, tool and die makers were employed at 4.5 times the national rate in Wichita, and machinists at 2.2 times the U.S. average. 

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 Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,628 establishments with a response rate of 76 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 Wichita, Kans. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Butler, Harvey, Kingman, Sedgwick, and Sumner 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, Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

31,2001.6$20.37$42,380

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,7601.430.4763,380

Coil winders, tapers, and finishers

802.816.8134,960

Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers

3900.818.1737,790

Electromechanical equipment assemblers

700.716.9235,200

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

9706.025.8853,830

Fiberglass laminators and fabricators

(5)(5)16.2333,770

Team assemblers

3,3201.415.5932,430

Assemblers and fabricators, all other

1,0902.317.2735,910

Bakers

3100.811.3123,510

Butchers and meat cutters

1000.317.1835,730

Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

(5)(5)12.6326,260

Food batchmakers

(5)(5)15.7032,660

Food processing workers, all other

400.512.8326,680

Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal and plastic

7102.318.1537,760

Computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers, metal and plastic

3005.733.4969,670

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

1701.116.0233,320

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

5401.315.7032,650

Drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

602.516.2733,840

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

3502.214.1129,350

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

1502.119.2139,950

Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

(5)(5)24.1150,140

Machinists

1,8102.220.2942,200

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

(5)(5)14.3129,760

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

1600.618.4338,340

Tool and die makers

6804.525.9854,040

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

1,3501.720.1541,910

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

1701.715.9933,250

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

1002.518.2437,950

Layout workers, metal and plastic

75038.932.3767,340

Prepress technicians and workers

1101.618.9439,400

Printing press operators

4201.215.8733,010

Print binding and finishing workers

1801.712.4725,950

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

5001.210.5221,880

Sewing machine operators

3701.311.0122,900

Extruding and forming machine setters, operators, and tenders, synthetic and glass fibers

401.118.7839,050

Upholsterers

600.918.9439,390

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

3101.514.6830,530

Furniture finishers

1504.014.0529,220

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

(5)(5)11.2223,340

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

1300.815.1131,420

Power plant operators

(5)(5)26.1554,390

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

1800.717.8837,180

Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers

4004.533.3569,370

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

(5)(5)17.2335,840

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

(5)(5)14.2229,580

Grinding and polishing workers, hand

1502.714.6430,450

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

2801.016.9835,310

Cutters and trimmers, hand

301.114.8030,790

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

900.714.4730,090

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

2,5202.325.1952,400

Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers

(5)(5)23.1948,240

Dental laboratory technicians

901.216.8034,950

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

3900.513.0827,200

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

4702.616.1033,490

Painters, transportation equipment

2001.825.5453,130

Photographic process workers and processing machine operators

300.612.6226,250

Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders

1103.115.2031,610

Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders

400.912.8426,700

Etchers and engravers

301.712.6926,400

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

700.914.7830,740

Helpers--production workers

7900.911.5323,970

Production workers, all other

2800.513.7628,630

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_48620.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.
(5) Estimate not released.
 

 

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2017