November 15, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Highest-paying jobs in November 2003

Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations such as specialist physicians and dentists accounted for 8 out of the 10 highest-paying occupations in November 2003.

[Chart data—TXT]

The average hourly wages for these health-related occupations ranged from $87.83 for surgeons ($182,690 per year) to $62.04 for dentists ($129,040 per year). 

The 2 occupations among the 10 highest paying that were outside of the health care field were chief executives and airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers.

The BLS Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey produced these data. The OES survey covers all full- and part-time wage and salary workers in nonfarm industries; the survey does not include the self-employed owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers. Find more information in "Occupational Employment and Wages, November 2003" (PDF) (TXT),  news release USDL 04-2320.