May 27, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Highly paid healthcare occupations

Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, such as specialist physicians and dentists, accounted for 13 out of the 15 highest paying occupations in May 2004.

Average hourly wages, selected healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, May 2004
[Chart data—TXT]

The average hourly wages for surgeons were $87.31. Two other occupations—obstetricians and gynecologists, and anesthesiologists—also had average hourly wages greater than $80.

These data are from the Occupational Employment Statistics program. More estimates of occupational employment and wages of wage and salary workers in nonfarm industries are published in Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2004 (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-877.

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009

The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, though many of the statistics that describe the U.S. economy have yet to return to their pre-recession values. In this Spotlight, we present BLS data that compare the recent recession to previous recessions. Read more »