Topeka, KS
Metropolitan statistical area, CBSA 45820 · 39.04, -95.80
4 findings fired for Topeka, KS this run, against a typical home value of $216,883 in September 2026 and covered employment of 114,220 in 2026 Q1.
- 52nd pct · 189th of 393 US metro areas · median 105,500
Total employment in the BLS OEWS occupational tables for this metro area. It is an occupational survey total, not the QCEW payroll count below.
An estimate: the sum of the member counties BLS publishes, not BLS's own metro row, whose boundaries follow each year's delineation. The arithmetic is printed below.
- 16th pct · 315th of 379 US metro areas · median $305,707
Zillow Home Value Index, metro file, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- 19th pct · 309th of 382 US metro areas · median $1,504
Zillow Observed Rent Index, metro file.
- 24th pct · 287th of 379 US metro areas · median 16.9
typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month.
- 38th pct · 235th of 379 US metro areas · median 2.0%
Zillow's own twelve-month change on the metro row.
A percentile here is a min-max scaling of average rank: the smallest published value in the cohort is 0 and the largest is 100, and tied values share the average of the ranks they span. It is not the share of entities below the value, so 0 means smallest, not none below. Entities that did not publish the metric are outside the cohort entirely and are counted in neither the rank nor its denominator.
Occupation mix #
The 30 largest detailed occupations and all 22 SOC major groups in Topeka, KS, from the bundled BLS OEWS release.
| SOC | Occupation | Jobs | Mean annual wage | Location quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35-3023 | Fast Food and Counter Workers | 3,260 | $28,220 | 1.14 |
| 29-1141 | Registered Nurses | 3,190 | $88,670 | 1.27 |
| 31-1120 | Home Health and Personal Care Aides | 3,090 | $32,260 | 0.96 |
| 43-6014 | Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 2,920 | $41,760 | 2.29 |
| 11-1021 | General and Operations Managers | 2,450 | $103,570 | 0.94 |
| 43-4051 | Customer Service Representatives | 2,340 | $44,280 | 1.21 |
| 31-1131 | Nursing Assistants | 2,270 | $41,060 | 2.10 |
| 41-2031 | Retail Salespersons | 2,270 | $35,250 | 0.78 |
| 41-2011 | Cashiers | 2,240 | $28,790 | 0.98 |
| 53-7062 | Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 2,140 | $44,780 | 0.97 |
| 53-7065 | Stockers and Order Fillers | 1,890 | $38,430 | 0.90 |
| 25-9045 | Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary | 1,620 | $34,520 | 1.53 |
| 15-1252 | Software Developers | 1,500 | $111,150 | 1.19 |
| 53-3032 | Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | 1,450 | $60,900 | 0.95 |
| 13-2011 | Accountants and Auditors | 1,420 | $81,190 | 1.32 |
| 37-2011 | Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners | 1,380 | $35,720 | 0.84 |
| 35-3031 | Waiters and Waitresses | 1,330 | $38,520 | 0.79 |
| 43-3031 | Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 1,260 | $49,110 | 1.23 |
| 43-1011 | First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 1,250 | $66,120 | 1.17 |
| 25-2021 | Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 1,170 | $56,140 | 1.14 |
| 13-1111 | Management Analysts | 1,090 | $72,430 | 1.63 |
| 13-1199 | Business Operations Specialists, All Other | 1,000 | $81,900 | 1.24 |
| 49-9071 | Maintenance and Repair Workers, General | 990 | $50,160 | 0.87 |
| 25-2031 | Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 920 | $57,330 | 1.16 |
| 53-7051 | Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators | 900 | $49,310 | 1.55 |
| 29-2061 | Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses | 840 | $64,780 | 1.74 |
| 47-2061 | Construction Laborers | 810 | $46,140 | 1.00 |
| 41-3091 | Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel | 790 | $73,490 | 0.85 |
| 51-9111 | Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders | 790 | $45,550 | 2.79 |
| 35-2014 | Cooks, Restaurant | 770 | $33,810 | 0.73 |
| SOC | Occupation | Jobs | Mean annual wage | Location quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43-0000 | Office and Administrative Support Occupations | 14,530 | $47,120 | 1.10 |
| 53-0000 | Transportation and Material Moving Occupations | 9,880 | $46,870 | 0.97 |
| 29-0000 | Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations | 8,870 | $100,110 | 1.21 |
| 13-0000 | Business and Financial Operations Occupations | 8,840 | $80,840 | 1.13 |
| 35-0000 | Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations | 8,830 | $32,770 | 0.87 |
| 41-0000 | Sales and Related Occupations | 8,460 | $50,790 | 0.85 |
| 31-0000 | Healthcare Support Occupations | 7,120 | $38,280 | 1.21 |
| 51-0000 | Production Occupations | 7,000 | $53,490 | 1.10 |
| 11-0000 | Management Occupations | 6,640 | $122,180 | 0.80 |
| 25-0000 | Educational Instruction and Library Occupations | 6,550 | $50,440 | 0.97 |
| 47-0000 | Construction and Extraction Occupations | 4,950 | $59,170 | 1.03 |
| 49-0000 | Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations | 4,670 | $64,280 | 1.03 |
| 15-0000 | Computer and Mathematical Occupations | 3,760 | $94,640 | 0.96 |
| 37-0000 | Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations | 3,050 | $37,880 | 0.90 |
| 33-0000 | Protective Service Occupations | 2,990 | $61,640 | 1.06 |
| 21-0000 | Community and Social Service Occupations | 2,150 | $55,460 | 1.08 |
| 39-0000 | Personal Care and Service Occupations | 2,140 | $35,540 | 0.88 |
| 17-0000 | Architecture and Engineering Occupations | 1,540 | $92,600 | 0.79 |
| 19-0000 | Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations | 1,220 | $79,220 | 1.11 |
| 27-0000 | Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations | 1,220 | $58,100 | 0.80 |
| 23-0000 | Legal Occupations | 1,170 | $94,780 | 1.20 |
| 45-0000 | Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations | 160 | $41,070 | 0.51 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, metropolitan area tables, committed to this repository rather than fetched. A location quotient above 1 means the occupation is more concentrated here than in the United States as a whole; wages are means, not medians, and BLS suppresses a wage where its sample is too thin.
Housing #
The typical home in the Topeka, KS metro was worth $216,883 in September 2026.
25 months to September 2026. Rent: $1,250 in September 2026.
Zillow Home Value Index and Observed Rent Index, metro files, joined by the RegionID recorded in the place manifest. Both are smoothed indices of the middle third of the market, not sale prices.
Employment, rolled up from member counties #
About 114,220 covered jobs across the 5 member counties BLS published.
- jobs = sum of QCEW third-month employment across the 5 of 5 member counties BLS publishes.
- 114,220 = 4,491 + 3,757 + 2,874 + 101,673 + 1,425
| County | FIPS |
|---|---|
| Jackson County, KS | 20085 |
| Jefferson County, KS | 20087 |
| Osage County, KS | 20139 |
| Shawnee County, KS | 20177 |
| Wabaunsee County, KS | 20197 |
There are no QCEW metro employment totals here, and that is a property of the data rather than an omission: BLS does publish MSA area codes (C####), but lib/economy's QCEW reader handles only county (SSCCC), state (SS000) and national (US000) rows at aggregation levels 74, 54 and 14, and the /api/economy route regex rejects anything else. So this figure is a sum of member counties, labelled an estimate, with every county it could not count named.
National indicator context #
None of these series is keyed to this metro area. They are national, gauge, single-state or port series, shown as context for the numbers above.
| Indicator | Latest | Unit | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi River at Memphis, stage | not published | ft | no data |
| Mississippi River at St. Louis, stage | not published | ft | no data |
| Ohio River at Louisville, stage | 17.95 | ft | ok |
| Missouri River at St. Joseph, stage | not published | ft | no data |
| Colorado River below Hoover Dam, flow (Hoover releases) | 5,170.00 | ft³/s | ok |
| Texas reservoirs, statewide percent full | 72.20 | % | ok |
| Laredo truck crossings, monthly | 258,700.00 | trucks | ok |
| Los Angeles + Long Beach container volume, annual | 10,513,167.00 | TEU | watch |
| Containerships waiting for a berth, all US ports | 7.00 | ships | ok |
| Shanghai to Los Angeles container rate | 7,848.00 | $ per 40 ft box | watch |
| US diesel retail price | not published | $ per gallon | no data |
| WTI crude oil, spot | 101.91 | $ per barrel | watch |
| 30-year fixed mortgage rate | 7.40 | % | watch |
| Housing starts, annual rate | 1,275.00 | thousands of units | ok |
| Building permits, annual rate | 1,403.00 | thousands of units | ok |
| Case-Shiller US home price index | 337.31 | index, Jan 2000 = 100 | ok |
| Unemployment rate | 4.20 | % | ok |
| US goods and services trade balance, monthly | -105,572.00 | $ millions | ok |
| Retail sales excluding food services, monthly | 652,115.00 | $ millions | ok |
lib/indicators has no geographic selection: every registry entry is a United States, gauge, Texas, port, crossing or world series, and no entry is metro-keyed. Reading these as this metro's own readings would be wrong.
What changed #
Topeka, KS: 4 findings, 4 noted
noteTopeka, KS' typical asking rent fell 0.5% from $1,256 in August 2026 to $1,250 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.
Period 2026-09.Show the arithmetic
- -0.5% = (1249.869590643275 - 1256.081430366933) / 1256.081430366933 × 100
- 1249.869590643275 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
- 1256.081430366933 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
noteThe next Unemployment rate (BLS Employment Situation, monthly) covering Topeka, KS is due between 2026-10-30 and 2026-11-13, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern.
Show the arithmetic
- window = 2026-10-30 to 2026-11-13, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern
estimated from the publisher's past release pattern; not an announced date
noteThe next Zillow ZHVI typical home value (monthly) covering Topeka, KS is due between 2026-11-14 and 2026-11-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern.
Show the arithmetic
- window = 2026-11-14 to 2026-11-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern
estimated from the publisher's past release pattern; not an announced date
noteThe next Zillow ZORI typical rent (monthly) covering Topeka, KS is due between 2026-11-14 and 2026-11-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern.
Show the arithmetic
- window = 2026-11-14 to 2026-11-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern
estimated from the publisher's past release pattern; not an announced date
The full Topeka, KS brief, with the arithmetic behind every sentence.
Metro briefs are thinner by construction: with no QCEW metro path, their findings come from Zillow's metro home value and rent rows, the county rollup, and nearby crossings and ports.