Occupational Employment and Wages in Kansas City — May 2023

Workers in the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $29.63 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, 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 ($59.21), legal ($55.61), and computer and mathematical ($47.74). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($16.28), personal care and service ($16.86), and healthcare support ($17.99). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Kansas City area included office and administrative support (12.4 percent), transportation and material moving (9.7 percent), and food preparation and serving related (8.8 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.7 percent); legal (0.9 percent); and community and social service (1.2 percent).

One occupational group-transportation and material moving-was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Kansas City had 105,080 jobs in transportation and material moving, accounting for 9.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 9.1-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.18, compared to the national wage of $22.45.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the transportation and material moving group included stockers and order fillers (25,460), hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (19,800), and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (18,800). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were air traffic controllers and crane and tower operators, with mean hourly wages of $69.14 and $37.29, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were parking attendants ($14.66) and cleaners of vehicles and equipment ($16.57). (Detailed data for the transportation and material moving occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_28140.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 Kansas City area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the transportation and material moving group. For instance, air traffic controllers were employed at 2.5 times the national rate in Kansas City, and traffic technicians, at 2.4 times the U.S. average. Hand packers and packagers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Kansas City, 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 Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, and the Kansas Department of Labor.

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 580 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 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area included 7,159 establishments with a response rate of 64 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 Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Johnson County, KS; Leavenworth County, KS; Linn County, KS; Miami County, KS; Wyandotte County, KS; Bates County, MO; Caldwell County, MO; Cass County, MO; Clay County, MO; Clinton County, MO; Jackson County, MO; Lafayette County, MO; Platte County, MO; and Ray 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.

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 transportation and material moving occupations, Kansas City metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment	Mean wages ($)
Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Transportation and material moving occupations	105,080	1.1	22.18	46,140
Aircraft cargo handling supervisors	30	0.5	33.93	70,580
First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers, except aircraft cargo handling supervisors	4,620	1.1	31.03	64,550
Commercial pilots	330	0.9	(5)	139,370
Air traffic controllers	400	2.5	69.14	143,800
Airfield operations specialists	60	0.5	22.30	46,380
Driver/sales workers	3,060	0.9	20.78	43,220
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	18,800	1.3	27.64	57,500
Light truck drivers	7,620	1.1	23.26	48,380
Bus drivers, school	3,480	1.3	21.04	43,760
Bus drivers, transit and intercity	670	0.5	27.23	56,640
Shuttle drivers and chauffeurs	1,510	1.0	17.05	35,470
Motor vehicle operators, all other	380	1.0	16.57	34,470
Railroad conductors and yardmasters	60	0.2	25.79	53,650
Parking attendants	700	0.8	14.66	30,480
Automotive and watercraft service attendants	340	0.5	18.60	38,680
Aircraft service attendants	60	0.4	18.46	38,400
Traffic technicians	130	2.4	23.34	48,550
Transportation inspectors	100	0.5	33.52	69,720
Conveyor operators and tenders	90	0.5	20.76	43,170
Crane and tower operators	250	0.8	37.29	77,560
Industrial truck and tractor operators	7,390	1.3	22.90	47,630
Cleaners of vehicles and equipment	3,080	1.2	16.57	34,470
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	19,800	0.9	19.57	40,700
Machine feeders and offbearers	510	1.6	27.45	57,100
Packers and packagers, hand	4,740	1.0	17.58	36,570
Stockers and order fillers	25,460	1.3	18.73	38,960
Refuse and recyclable material collectors	700	0.7	21.48	44,680
Tank car, truck, and ship loaders	70	0.8	26.76	55,650
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_28140.htm. (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) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.

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