Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2004

27-2011 Actors

Play parts in stage, television, radio, video, or motion picture productions for entertainment, information, or instruction. Interpret serious or comic role by speech, gesture, and body movement to entertain or inform audience. May dance and sing.

Metropolitan areas with the highest concentration of workers in this occupation:

(1) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers.

(2) 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.

(3) The relative standard error (RSE) is a measure of the reliability of a survey statistic. The smaller the relative standard error, the more precise the estimate.

(6) There is wide variation in the number of hours worked by those employed as actors, dancers, musicians, and singers. Many jobs are for a duration of 1 day or 1 week and it is extremely rare for a performer to have guaranteed employment for a period that exceeds 3 to 6 months.

(7) Estimates not released.