Occupational Employment and Wages in Cedar Rapids — May 2023

Workers in the Cedar Rapids, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.71 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($53.65), legal ($44.38), and computer and mathematical ($43.45). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.98), personal care and service ($15.63), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.56). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Cedar Rapids area included office and administrative support (11.8 percent), transportation and material moving (10.2 percent), and production (9.7 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.5 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.8 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.5 percent). (See table A.)

One occupational group-office and administrative support-was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Cedar Rapids had 16,490 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.05, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (3,480), office clerks, general (2,240), and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (1,400). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and production, planning, and expediting clerks, with mean hourly wages of $31.17 and $29.89, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were library assistants, clerical ($13.15) and hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($13.91). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16300.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 Cedar Rapids area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, tellers were employed at 1.5 times the national rate in Cedar Rapids, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks, at 1.4 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in Cedar Rapids, 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, Iowa Workforce Development.

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 Cedar Rapids, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,755 establishments with a response rate of 69 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 Cedar Rapids, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Benton County, Jones County, and Linn 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 office and administrative support occupations, Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment	Mean wages ($)
Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	16,490	1.0	22.05	45,850
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,010	0.7	31.17	64,830
Switchboard operators, including answering service	50	1.4	15.81	32,880
Bill and account collectors	60	0.3	20.73	43,110
Billing and posting clerks	280	0.7	21.39	44,500
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,400	1.0	23.59	49,070
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	70	0.5	25.69	53,440
Procurement clerks	40	0.8	22.43	46,660
Tellers	460	1.5	17.80	37,020
Court, municipal, and license clerks	130	0.9	24.59	51,140
Customer service representatives	3,480	1.3	21.06	43,790
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	80	0.6	26.26	54,630
File clerks	120	1.6	18.70	38,890
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	220	0.9	13.91	28,940
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	120	0.8	18.01	37,450
Library assistants, clerical	50	0.7	13.15	27,340
Loan interviewers and clerks	240	1.3	23.34	48,540
New accounts clerks	110	2.8	20.42	42,480
Order clerks	60	0.7	21.14	43,970
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	60	0.7	21.63	44,980
Receptionists and information clerks	490	0.5	16.46	34,240
Information and record clerks, all other	30	0.2	22.14	46,040
Cargo and freight agents	110	1.1	24.83	51,640
Couriers and messengers	100	1.5	16.58	34,490
Public safety telecommunicators	80	0.9	24.23	50,400
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	170	0.9	29.38	61,110
Postal service clerks	80	1.2	28.76	59,830
Postal service mail carriers	330	1.1	28.42	59,110
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	140	1.3	26.72	55,570
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	370	1.0	29.89	62,160
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	790	1.0	21.42	44,550
Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping	40	0.8	19.64	40,860
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	350	0.8	28.99	60,290
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	80	0.6	22.52	46,830
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	870	1.3	18.73	38,960
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1,390	0.8	20.61	42,860
Data entry keyers	120	0.9	18.20	37,860
Word processors and typists	40	1.1	21.14	43,970
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	310	1.4	21.61	44,950
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service	60	1.0	17.83	37,090
Office clerks, general	2,240	1.0	20.43	42,500
Office machine operators, except computer	50	1.8	15.69	32,640
Office and administrative support workers, all other	110	0.7	19.52	40,610
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Cedar Rapids, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16300.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.

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