metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas; industry-specific data for the nation; and data by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals.
Occupations
- The 10 largest occupations accounted for more than 20 percent of total employment in May 2010. In addition to retail salespersons and cashiers, the largest occupations included general office clerks; combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food; registered nurses; and waiters and waitresses.
- Most of the largest occupations were relatively low paying. Of the 10 largest occupations, only registered nurses had an average wage above the U.S. all-occupations mean of $21.35 per hour or $44,410 annually. Combined food preparation and serving workers, cashiers, and waiters and waitresses were the three lowest paying of the 10 largest occupations, and also among the lowest-paying occupations overall.
- Three of the largest occupations were office and administrative support jobs, helping to make office and administrative support the largest occupational group overall, representing 17 percent of total employment. The next largest groups were sales and related occupations and food preparation and serving related occupations, which made up about 11 and 9 percent of U.S. employment, respectively.
- The smallest occupational groups included legal occupations and life, physical, and social science occupations, each representing around 1 percent of total employment. Most employment in these two groups came from occupations with above average wages, such as judges, with an hourly mean wage of $50.67; arbitrators, mediators, and conciliators ($31.95); medical scientists, except epidemiologists ($41.69); and physicists ($53.86).
Ownership
- Nearly 91 percent of employment in the 10 largest occupations was in the private sector. Among these occupations, the share of private sector employment ranged from 74 percent of janitors and secretaries to nearly 100 percent of retail salespersons and waiters and waitresses. Eight of the 10 largest occupations in the private sector were the same as those in the economy as a whole; stock clerks and order fillers and general and operations managers rounded out the largest private sector occupations.
- Five of the 6 largest occupations in local government were education related: elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers, except special education; teacher assistants; and teachers and instructors, all other. These 5 occupations made up about 30 percent of local government employment. Other large occupations in local government included police and sheriff’s patrol officers, janitors, and firefighters.
- Correctional officers and jailers was the largest occupation in state government, with employment of nearly 257,000. Additional large occupations in state government included registered nurses, graduate teaching assistants, police and sheriff’s patrol officers, postsecondary health specialties teachers, and several office and administrative support occupations.
- Four occupations specific to the U.S. Postal Service made up about 21 percent of federal government employment. Aside from these occupations, the largest occupations in the federal government included all other business operations specialists, registered nurses, compliance officers, and management analysts.
Industry
- Health care and social assistance was the industry sector with the highest employment, followed by retail trade. Over half of employment in the health care and social assistance sector was in healthcare-related occupations, including registered nurses; nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants; home health aides; and licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses. Other large occupations in this sector included personal care aides, medical secretaries, and childcare workers. More than 60 percent of retail trade employment was in just 4 occupations: retail salespersons, cashiers, stock clerks and order fillers, and first-line supervisors of retail salesworkers.
- Industries with the highest all-occupations mean wages included computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing, software publishers, and several financial services industries. These industries tended to have high employment concentrations of occupations with above average wages. For example, the largest occupations in software publishing included software developers, applications, with an hourly mean wage of $45.65; software developers, systems software ($48.48); computer programmers ($39.16); and sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, technical and scientific products ($40.50).
- The industries with the lowest all-occupations mean wages consisted primarily of food service and retail trade industries. In limited-service eating places, the industry with the lowest overall average wage, 8 of the 10 largest occupations had mean wages below $10.00 per hour, including combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food ($8.62); fast food cooks ($8.85); and counter attendants, cafeteria, food concession, and coffee shop ($8.82).
State and Local Area
- States with high total employment, such as California, Texas, New York, and Florida, also tended to have the highest employment of many individual occupations. However, smaller states had among the highest employment of some occupations, due to factors such as industry mix or natural resource endowments. For example, West Virginia and Kentucky had some of the highest employment of several mining-related occupations, including mining roof bolters and shuttle car operators, while Iowa had some of the highest employment of farm equipment mechanics and soil and plant scientists.
- While some occupations, such as janitors and dishwashers, made up similar shares of total employment in most areas, employment concentrations of other occupations varied considerably across areas. For example, as a share of total area employment, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., had nearly 18 times as many semiconductor processors and computer hardware engineers as the U.S. as a whole, while the employment share of commercial and industrial designers in the Warren-Farmington Hills-Troy, Mich., metropolitan division was more than 9 times the U.S. average.
- Wages for a given occupation also varied significantly across areas. For example, among areas with at least 100 computer hardware engineers, wages for this occupation varied from $35.99 in Kansas City, Mo.-Ks., to $59.66 in the Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y., metropolitan division.
