Technical information: (202) 691-6569 USDL 09-0457
http://www.bls.gov/oes/
For release: 10:00 A.M. (EDT)
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Friday, May 1, 2009
OCCUPATIONAL EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES, 2008
In 2008, the U.S. median wage was $15.57 per hour or $32,390 per year,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department
of Labor. These data are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES)
program, which provides employment and wage estimates for wage and salary
workers in 22 major occupational groups and 801 detailed occupations. OES
produces data by occupation for the nation, states, metropolitan areas,
metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas, and by occupation and
industry for the nation. National cross-industry employment and wage infor-
mation for all occupations is shown in table 1. Complete data are available
from the OES homepage at http://www.bls.gov/oes/.
The median wage represents the pay of the typical worker. Table 4 shows
employment and wage information for occupations with median wages between
5 percent above and 5 percent below the U.S. median wage. Many of the
occupations with wages within this range were office and administrative
support, construction and extraction, or production occupations.
OES data can be used to compare employment and wages for different
occupations, such as the occupations with wages near the U.S. median
shown in table 4. With employment of 1.9 and 1.3 million, respectively,
bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks; and general maintenance
and repair workers were the largest occupations with wages near the U.S.
median, and also were among the 20 largest occupations overall. The 2
largest occupations in the U.S., retail salespersons and cashiers, had
employment of approximately 4.4 and 3.5 million, respectively.
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| |
| Changes to Occupational Employment Statistics Data |
| |
| Effective with this news release, the Occupational Employ- |
| ment Statistics program has switched the basis for their indus- |
| try classification from the 2002 North American Industry Clas- |
| sification System (NAICS) to the 2007 NAICS. Historical data |
| were not revised. |
| |
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Other large occupations with wages near the U.S. median included all
other teachers and instructors, with employment of 574,540; billing and
posting clerks and machine operators (512,120); inspectors, testers,
sorters, samplers, and weighers (467,010); welders, cutters, solderers,
and brazers (392,520); and dental assistants (293,090). Among the small-
est occupations with wages near the U.S. median were forest fire inspectors
and prevention specialists, farm labor contractors, wood model makers, and
wood patternmakers, each of which had employment levels between 1,000 and
2,000.
While some of these occupations were concentrated in specific industries,
others were more widely distributed across industries. For example, although
93 percent of dental assistants worked in offices of dentists, the largest
employer of general maintenance and repair workers--lessors of real estate--
employed only about 10 percent of this occupation.
Median wages for occupations shown in table 4 ranged from $14.83 to
$16.35 per hour. In contrast, the lowest paying occupations included
gaming dealers; combined food preparation and serving workers; waiters
and waitresses; dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender
helpers; and fast food cooks, with median wages ranging from $7.84 to
$8.12 per hour. Among the highest paying occupations were several
specialty physician and dentist occupations, which had median wages
over $80.00 per hour or $166,400 annually.
Major Occupational Group Employment and Wages by Industry Sector
Most occupations with wages near the U.S. median were office and
administrative support; construction and extraction; installation,
maintenance, and repair; or production occupations. Table 4 contains
26 occupations in the production group, making this group the one with
the largest number of occupations earning near the median wage. Twelve
office and administrative support occupations had wages near the U.S.
median; however, total employment in these 12 occupations was approxi-
mately 3.8 million, as compared to total employment of 2.1 million for
the production occupations shown in table 4.
Office and administrative support also was the largest occupational
group overall, with total employment of 23.2 million, followed by
sales and related occupations, with total employment of 14.3 million,
and food preparation and serving related occupations, with total
employment of 11.4 million. (See table 2.) While some occupational
groups were highly concentrated in specific industry sectors, others
were distributed more evenly across sectors. For example, nearly 89
percent of employment in education, training, and library occupations
was found in the educational services sector, and over 87 percent of
employment in healthcare support occupations was found in the health
care and social assistance sector. In contrast, although retail trade,
finance and insurance, and health care and social assistance were among
the largest employers of office and administrative support occupations,
no single sector employed more than 12.4 percent of this group. (See
table 2.)
The highest paying occupational groups included management occupations,
with a median hourly wage of $42.15, legal occupations ($34.49), and com-
puter and mathematical science occupations ($34.26). Food preparation and
serving related occupations ($8.59); farming, fishing, and forestry occu-
pations ($9.34); personal care and service occupations ($9.82); and building
and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations ($10.52) were among the
lowest paying occupational groups. (See table 3.)
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Wages for the occupational groups varied by industry. Utilities;
transportation and warehousing; information; and finance and insurance
were among the highest paying industry sectors for several occupational
groups. Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting; retail trade; and
accommodation and food services were among the lowest paying sectors.
For example, median hourly wages for business and financial operations
occupations ranged from $33.75 in utilities to $20.94 in accommodation
and food services, while median wages for office and administrative sup-
port occupations ranged from $19.57 in transportation and warehousing to
$10.75 in retail trade.
Detailed Occupational Employment and Wages by Detailed Industry
In addition to the occupational group and industry sector data pre-
viously discussed, OES data also are available for detailed occupations
and industries. For example, table 5 shows employment and wages by in-
dustry for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks. Employment in
this occupation was widely distributed across industries. The accounting,
tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services industry employed more
bookkeeping clerks than any other industry, but only about 5.4 percent
of bookkeeping clerks were employed in this industry. Other large em-
ployers of this occupation were building equipment contractors, deposi-
tory credit intermediation, management of companies and enterprises,
and local government (OES designation); each representing less than 5
percent of occupational employment. The median hourly wage for book-
keeping clerks in these industries ranged from $14.43 in depository
credit intermediation to $16.22 in building equipment contractors.
Although accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll serv-
ices employed a relatively small percentage of all bookkeeping clerks,
this was the second largest occupation in the accounting services indus-
try, representing about 11.4 percent of industry employment. (See
table 6.) Accountants and auditors was by far the largest occupation in
the industry, with 286,110 jobs making up about one-third of industry em-
ployment. Tax preparers was the third largest occupation in accounting
services, with employment of 61,160. Most of the other large occupations
in this industry were office and administrative support occupations.
Occupational Employment and Wages by State and Area
OES data also allow comparison of occupational employment and wages
across states and metropolitan areas. Tables 7 and 8 show the states
and metropolitan areas with the highest employment and highest employment
concentrations of selected detailed occupations. Areas with high total
employment also tend to be among the largest employers of any individual
occupation, while employment concentrations reflect factors other than
overall employment levels, such as the area's industry mix. For example,
Texas employed more welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers than any
other state, with 53,530 jobs in this occupation; and Wyoming, although
it employed fewer total welders than Texas, had one of the highest em-
ployment concentrations in this occupation, with welders representing
over 9 jobs out of every 1,000 in the state. Louisiana was the only
state with both high employment levels and a high employment concentra-
tion of this occupation. (See table 7.)
Aside from Louisiana, the only state appearing on both sides of
table 7 for the same occupation is California, which was both one of
the largest employers of dental assistants and one of the states with
the highest concentrations of this occupation. Other states with high
concentrations of dental assistants were Utah and Washington. Nevada
and Hawaii had some of the highest concentrations of construction and
maintenance painters, while Connecticut and Nebraska had some of the
highest concentrations of insurance claims and policy processing
clerks.
Although all of the selected occupations shown in table 7 had national
median wages near the U.S. median, wages for each occupation varied across
states. For example, among the states shown in the table, median wages
for welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers varied from $13.83 in South
Dakota to $21.29 in Wyoming, while median wages for construction and
maintenance painters varied from $13.82 in Texas to $23.14 in Hawaii.
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At the metropolitan area level, as at the state level, areas with
high employment of the selected occupations also tended to have high
overall employment levels. (See table 8.) Chicago-Naperville-Joliet,
Ill., and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif., were among the
largest employers for all of the selected occupations, while New York-
White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J., and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas,
were among the largest employers for 3 out of the 4 occupations.
These also were among the largest metropolitan areas or metropolitan
divisions in the United States in terms of total employment.
While both Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas, and Dallas-Plano-
Irving, Texas, were among the metropolitan areas with the highest
employment of welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers, two other
metropolitan areas in Texas--Odessa and Beaumont-Port Arthur--reported
some of the highest employment concentrations of this occupation.
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, La., and Peoria, Ill., also had high con-
centrations of welders. Two metropolitan divisions in California--
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale and Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine--were
among the largest employers of dental assistants, while four of the
metropolitan areas with the highest concentrations of dental assistants
also were in California. Naples-Marco Island, Fla., and Beaumont-Port
Arthur, Texas, were among the areas with the highest concentrations of
construction and maintenance painters, while Wausau, Wis., and Macon,
Ga., were among the areas with the highest concentrations of insurance
claims and policy processing clerks, although both areas employed rela-
tively few workers in this occupation. Wages for the selected occupa-
tions varied by metropolitan area. For example, among the metropoli-
tan areas shown, median wages for construction and maintenance painters
ranged from $13.46 in Jacksonville, N.C., to $21.85 in Chicago-Naperville-
Joliet, Ill., while wages for insurance claims and policy processing
clerks ranged from $14.21 in Wausau, Wis., to $19.30 in Boston-Cambridge-
Quincy, Mass.
Additional Information
The Occupational Employment Statistics program produces cross-
industry occupational employment and wage estimates nationwide and
for all states, 377 metropolitan areas, 34 metropolitan divisions,
and 174 nonmetropolitan areas. OES also publishes national industry-
specific occupational employment and wage estimates for NAICS sectors
and 3-, 4-, and selected 5-digit industries. In addition to mean
hourly and annual wages, wage data include 10th, 25th, 50th (median),
75th, and 90th percentile wages, which can be used to show the distri-
bution of wages within an occupation or industry. OES data are pro-
duced by a cooperative effort between BLS and State Workforce Agencies,
and are based on a sample of 1.2 million business establishments, col-
lected in 6 semiannual panels over a 3-year period. Complete May 2008
Occupational Employment Statistics data are available from the OES Web
site at http://www.bls.gov/oes/.
