October 27, 1998 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Securities and commodities brokers
lead industries earning high wages
Thirty-nine percent of security and
commodities brokers earned above $24.25 per hour (roughly $50,000 per year) in 1996. This
industry had the highest proportion of employees in that wage category. About 22 percent
of security and commodities brokers earned over $43.25 per hour (roughly $89,000 per
year), and close to 14 percent of them were over $60.00 per hour (roughly $124,000 on an
annual basis). The security and commodities brokers industry includes establishments
engaged in the underwriting, purchase, sale, or brokerage of securities and other
financial contracts.
![Distribution of employment by industry and wage interval, 1996](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921214234im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/1998/Oct/wk4/art02.gif)
[Table dataTXT]
During 1996, 31 percent of employees in the tobacco products industry
earned above $24.25 per hour, including five-percent who earned above $43.25 per hour.
Unlike security and commodity brokers though, the tobacco products industry had a somewhat
larger proportion of workers (20 percent) who earned below $8.50 an hour (about $17,000).
Other industries with high proportions of employees earning above $24.25 per hour in
1996 included holding and other investment offices (28 percent); and engineering and
management services, and legal services (each at 27 percent).
Approximate annual earnings are derived by taking the hourly wage reported and
multiplying that wage by 2,080 hoursthe total number of hours in a year based upon
52 work weeks at 40 hours per week.
These data are a product of the BLS Occupational
Employment Statistics program. Additional information may be obtained
from Occupational Employment and Wages, Bulletin 2506, August 1998.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »