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STRATUSWORKFORCE SCAN
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Metro area, Kansas

Topeka, KS

115,750 people work in this area, at mean pay of $61,600 a year (BLS, May 2025), in every industry. What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.

now
23%

of the paid hours. Estimate.

$2.2B

a year: 51 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.

Kinds of work
  • 38%
  • 18%
  • 44%
5%

of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 18% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.

Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.

Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 38% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 2030

What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .

How far this has come

With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this area's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 20%. Today's estimate: 23%.

0%10%20%30%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 0% within reacho1, December 2024: 1% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 2% within reacho3, April 2025: 6% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 8% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 11% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 11% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 12% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 12% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 20% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 23% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.

Where the hours are

Jobs by hours within reach now. The 40 largest jobs hold 50% of the people.

People: BLS counts for this area, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this area, else its mean, else the national median. 330 smaller jobs (53,720 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 94% of the area's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.

The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028

Across the whole area, on the chosen pace and reliability.

  1. Coordinate conferences, meetings, or special events, such as luncheons or graduation ceremonies.Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
    639,521 hours53% of the task within reach
  2. Use computers for various applications, such as database management or word processing.Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
    583,235 hours100% of the task within reach
  3. Perform administrative or managerial functions, such as taking responsibility for a unit's staff, budget, planning, or long-range goals.Registered Nurses
    534,476 hours60% of the task within reach
  4. Obtain and examine all relevant information to assess validity of complaints and to determine possible causes, such as extreme weather conditions that could increase utility bills.Customer Service Representatives
    529,600 hours100% of the task within reach
  5. Complete contract forms, prepare change of address records, or issue service discontinuance orders, using computers.Customer Service Representatives
    488,472 hours100% of the task within reach
  6. Set up and manage paper or electronic filing systems, recording information, updating paperwork, or maintaining documents, such as attendance records, correspondence, or other material.Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
    470,063 hours70% of the task within reach
  7. Modify existing software to correct errors, adapt it to new hardware, or upgrade interfaces and improve performance.Software Developers
    418,882 hours100% of the task within reach
  8. Develop and implement records management program for filing, protection, and retrieval of records, and assure compliance with program.Management Analysts
    413,127 hours76% of the task within reach
  9. Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks
    409,762 hours100% of the task within reach
  10. Prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, or other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.Accountants and Auditors
    380,070 hours98% of the task within reach

Other areas in Kansas

Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.

How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this area; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the area's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works