Chart Book, May 2009

Occupation Focus

Figure 1

Almost 35 million jobs, or over one-quarter of U.S. employment, are found in 15 occupations.

Employment and mean wages for the largest occupations in the United States, May 2009

Occupation	Employment	Percent of U.S. employment	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage
Retail salespersons	4,209,500	3.22	$11.84	$24,630
Cashiers	3,439,380	2.63	9.15	19,030
Office clerks, general	2,815,240	2.15	13.32	27,700
Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food	2,695,740	2.06	8.71	18,120
Registered nurses	2,583,770	1.98	31.99	66,530
Waiters and waitresses	2,302,070	1.76	9.80	20,380
Customer service representatives	2,195,860	1.68	15.58	32,410
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	2,135,790	1.63	12.16	25,290
Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners	2,090,400	1.60	11.60	24,120
Stock clerks and order fillers	1,864,410	1.43	11.28	23,460
Secretaries, except legal, medical, and executive	1,797,670	1.38	14.93	31,060
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,757,870	1.35	16.71	34,750
General and operations managers	1,689,680	1.29	53.15	110,550
Truck drivers, heavy and tractor-trailer	1,550,930	1.19	18.87	39,260
Elementary school teachers, except special education	1,544,300	1.18	(1)	53,150
1 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.

• Twelve of the largest occupations had wages below the U.S. mean annual wage of $43,460. General and operations managers; elementary school teachers, except special education; and registered nurses had wages above the U.S. average.
• The two largest occupations, retail salespersons and cashiers, were sales occupations. Five of the 15 largest occupations were office and administrative support occupations, with combined employment of over 10.4 million.
• Some of the largest occupations were concentrated in specific industries, while others were found in a wide variety of industries. For example, about 75 percent of waiters and waitresses were employed in full-service restaurants, and nearly all elementary school teachers were employed in elementary and secondary schools. General office clerks, however, were found in many industries, with their largest employer—local government— accounting for less than 7 percent of jobs in this occupation.

Figure 2

The smallest occupations in the United States are more specialized and include several occupations with annual mean wages of $100,000 or more.

Employment and mean wages for the smallest occupations in the United States, May 2009

Occupation	Employment	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage
Prosthodontists	660	$60.29	$125,400
Fabric menders, except garment	840	13.28	27,630
Radio operators	870	20.86	43,400
Locomotive firers	960	24.71	51,400
Farm labor contractors	1,000	17.37	36,130
Segmental pavers	1,040	13.81	28,730
Mathematical technicians	1,090	21.27	44,230
Geographers	1,170	34.33	71,420
Astronomers	1,240	49.40	102,740
Models	1,510	17.51	36,420
Patternmakers, wood	1,540	18.53	38,540
Forest fire inspectors and prevention specialists	1,540	18.36	38,180
Animal breeders	1,700	16.93	35,210
Industrial-organizational psychologists	1,710	49.31	102,570
Model makers, wood	1,900	16.33	33,970
Makeup artists, theatrical and performance	1,930	21.64	45,010
Dredge operators	1,990	18.43	38,330
1 Omits some occupations that are concentrated in private households and the agricultural sector (except logging and support activities for crop and animal production), which are not covered by the OES survey.

• The 17 occupations shown in figure 2 accounted for less than 0.2 percent of U.S. employment.
• Twelve of the 17 occupations had wages similar to or below the U.S. annual mean wage of $43,460. Of the five occupations with above-average wages, three were life, physical, and social science occupations: astronomers, industrial-organizational psychologists, and geographers. Prosthodontists and locomotive firers also had above-average wages.
• Several of the smallest occupations were specialized construction; installation, maintenance, and repair; production; or transportation and material moving occupations, including segmental pavers, fabric menders, wood model makers, and dredge operators.

Figure 3

Employment opportunities for people interested in repairing mechanical devices are found in a number of related fields, each with differing ranges of remuneration.

• Among the mechanics occupations, aircraft mechanics and service technicians had the highest average wage at $25.47 per hour, followed by rail car repairers at $22.32 per hour. Bicycle repairers and outdoor power equipment and small engine mechanics had the lowest average hourly wages at $11.65 and $14.61, respectively.
• Automotive service technicians had the greatest spread in wages, with a 10th percentile wage of $9.54 per hour and a 90th percentile wage of $28.81.
• The most common of the mechanics occupations was automotive service technicians, with 606,990 workers employed nationally. Bicycle repairers (9,290 workers) and recreational vehicle service technicians (10,860) were the least common.

Figure 4

Many of the largest occupations with wages near the U.S. mean were skilled manufacturing jobs or skilled trades.

• Executive secretaries and administrative assistants and carpenters were the two largest occupations with mean wages within 5 percent of the U.S. all-occupations mean of $20.90 per hour.
• The construction and extraction major occupational group and the installation, maintenance, and repair major occupational group both had three detailed occupations represented among the 15 largest occupations with wages near the U.S. mean.

Figure 5

Workers in skilled construction trade occupations earned between 34 and 83 percent more than workers in those occupations that assist them.

• Mean wages were higher than $20.00 per hour for 6 of the 11 construction trade occupations shown, but mean wages were lower than $15.00 per hour for all of the accompanying helper occupations.
• Although the mean wage for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters ($23.97) was significantly higher than the mean wage for their helpers ($13.24), the mean wage for pipelayers ($17.81) was only 34 percent higher than the helpers’ wages and represented one of the lowest wages among the construction trade occupations shown.

Figure 6

• Average wages varied more among some construction trade occupations than among helpers for the same occupations. For example, while electricians had a higher mean hourly wage (by $6.47, or 36 percent) than roofers, electricians’ helpers had a mean hourly wage that was only $1.69 (14 percent) higher than the wage earned by roofers’ helpers.
• Electricians; plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters; and brickmasons and block masons were among the highest paid construction trade occupations, and their helpers were the highest paid helpers.
• While nearly all of the construction trade occupations shown, including carpenters and paperhangers, receive training through apprenticeship programs or have moderate-term and long-term on-the-job training, their helpers have only short-term on-the-job training.

Figure 7

Occupations with higher mean and median wages had a wider distribution of wages.

• Occupations with low wages had a narrow wage range.
• For example, the lowest paying occupation shown, combined food preparation and serving workers, was clustered near the minimum wage, with a median wage of $8.28 per hour.
• Psychiatrists showed the largest variability in wages, ranging from $7.50 per hour to greater than $80 per hour.

• The majority of workers within an occupation did not earn a wage in the closest range to the occupation median, but within the nearest few ranges above and below the median. Overall, only 12 percent of workers earned a wage in the same range as the median, but 58 percent were within two wage ranges above and below the range that contains the median.

Figure 8

Three of the five occupational groups with high unemployment rates had 70 percent or more of their employment in a single industry sector: construction and extraction, production, and food preparation and serving related occupations.

• Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations and transportation and material moving occupations were distributed more evenly across industry sectors than the other occupational groupings. The administrative and support services sector, which includes janitorial services and facilities support services, had higher employment of building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations than any other sector, but accounted for only 38 percent of employment in this group. Similarly, the largest employer of transportation and material moving occupations, the transportation and warehousing sector, employed less than 30 percent of this group.
• Of the occupational groups shown in the chart, food preparation and serving related occupations was the largest, with total employment of more than 11.2 million. Production occupations and transportation and material moving occupations each had employment of nearly 9 million.

Figure 9

Two of the occupational groups with low unemployment rates had their employment concentrated in the healthcare and social assistance sector, and a third had employment concentrated in educational services.

• Total employment in education, training, and library occupations was approximately 8.5 million, and total employment in healthcare practitioner and technical occupations was approximately 7.2 million. The remaining three groups each had employment of less than 2 million.
• Community and social services; legal; education, training, and library; and healthcare practitioner and technical occupations each had half or more of their employment in a single industry sector. The most concentrated group was education, training, and library occupations, with 89 percent of this group employed in the educational services sector.
• Of the groups shown, the life, physical, and social science occupations group was the least concentrated in a single sector. About 29 percent of this group was employed in professional, scientific, and technical services, and about 23 percent in Federal, State, and local government.

Figure 10

Political scientists had one of the highest geographic concentrations of any occupation. About two-thirds of political scientists were employed in a single metropolitan area—Washington, D.C.

Employment, mean hourly wages, and measures of concentration for selected occupations with high geographic concentrations, May 2009

Occupation	Employment	Mean hourly wage	Herfindahl-Hirschman index	Percent of occupational employment in the 10 metropolitan or nonmetropolitan areas with highest employment of this occupation
Political scientists	3,970	$48.58	4748.9	89.2
Subway and streetcar operators	6,050	25.38	2783.8	95.9
Fashion designers	15,780	35.78	2327.8	78.0
Fabric and apparel patternmakers	6,640	20.64	1643.8	68.8
Prosthodontists	660	60.29	1357.1	80.3
Economists	13,160	46.31	1275.8	57.4
Petroleum engineers	25,540	57.67	1226.8	63.1
Agents and business managers of artists, performers, and athletes	11,700	42.04	1123.4	68.4
Loading machine operators, underground mining	3,570	21.14	1109.1	68.4
Film and video editors	17,550	30.62	1040.3	59.1
Shuttle car operators	3,520	22.31	980.5	77.0
Gaming supervisors	24,760	23.52	889.2	57.7
Textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators and tenders	12,980	11.82	880.2	55.6
Astronomers	1,240	49.40	877.9	69.3
Segmental pavers	1,040	13.81	854.0	76.3

• The figure shows some of the most geographically concentrated occupations, based on the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, commonly used to measure market concentration among firms in an industry. Here, high values of the Herfindahl-Hirschman index show that an occupation is concentrated in just a few geographic areas, while low values indicate the occupation is spread more evenly across areas.
• Nearly 96 percent of subway and streetcar operators—an occupation associated with urban public transportation—were employed in just 10 metropolitan areas.
• Three of the occupations with high geographic concentrations were associated with mining and natural resource extraction: petroleum engineers; loading machine operators, underground mining; and shuttle car operators.
• Several other occupations were associated with textile and apparel manufacturing, including fashion designers and fabric and apparel patternmakers.

Figure 11

Postmasters and mail superintendents was one of the most geographically dispersed occupations. The 10 areas with the highest employment of this occupation accounted for less than 12 percent of occupational employment.

Employment, mean hourly wages, and measures of concentration for selected occupations with low geographic concentrations, May 2009

Occupation	Employment	Mean hourly wage	Herfindahl-Hirschman index	Percent of occupational employment in the 10 metropolitan or nonmetropolitan areas with highest employment of this occupation
Postmasters and mail superintendents	24,890	$28.65	44.4	11.9
Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators	57,990	18.53	55.7	14.2
Agricultural inspectors	14,030	20.12	58.4	15.0
Highway maintenance workers	139,490	16.98	59.5	15.6
Electrical power-line installers and repairers	108,980	26.86	59.6	16.1
Outdoor power equipment and other small engine mechanics	26,010	14.61	60.2	16.2
Water and liquid waste treatment plant and system operators	109,090	19.99	60.6	16.9
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	41,750	13.12	63.9	15.0
Fish and game wardens	7,530	26.42	65.2	17.4
Cooks, institution and cafeteria	383,540	11.48	65.5	18.0
Foresters	10,230	26.55	66.9	15.9
Correctional officers and jailers	455,350	20.49	68.3	16.7
Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators	368,200	21.24	69.4	19.2
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	224,360	10.16	70.1	19.4
Conservation scientists	16,810	29.41	71.9	19.8

• Several of the occupations shown have job duties specifically associated with building, maintaining, and operating utilities and other infrastructure, including highway maintenance workers, electrical power line installers and repairers, and water and liquid waste treatment plant and system operators. Two other occupations— excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, and operating engineers and other construction equipment operators— also had significant employment in utility systems construction and highway, street, and bridge construction.
• The figure also includes three occupations associated with natural resource preservation: foresters, fish and game wardens, and conservation scientists.



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Last Modified Date: November 22, 2010

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