Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2003

37-3012 Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation

Mix or apply pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or insecticides through sprays, dusts, vapors, soil incorporation or chemical application on trees, shrubs, lawns, or botanical crops. Usually requires specific training and State or Federal certification. Exclude "Commercial Pilots" (53-2012) who operate aviation equipment to dust or spray crops.

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) Estimates not released.