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_______________________________

Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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OCCUPATIONAL EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES -- MAY 2011 [27 March 2012]

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm

or

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ocwage.pdf

[full-text, 21 pages]

 

Retail salespersons and cashiers were the occupations with the highest

employment in 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

These two occupations combined made up nearly 6 percent of total U.S.

employment, with employment levels of 4.3 and 3.3 million, respectively.

National employment and wage information for all occupations is shown in

table 1.

 

These data are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program,

which provides employment and wage estimates by area and by industry for

wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and nearly 800

detailed occupations.

 

Occupations

 

   --The 10 largest occupations accounted for more than 20 percent of

     total employment in May 2011. 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; waiters and waitresses; and customer service

     representatives.

      

   --Most of the largest occupations were relatively low paying. Of the

     10 largest occupations, only registered nurses, with an annual

     mean wage of $69,110, had an average wage above the U.S. all-

     occupations mean of $21.74 per hour or $45,230 annually. Annual mean

     wages for the rest of the 10 largest occupations ranged from $18,790

     for combined food preparation and serving workers to $33,120 for

     customer service representatives.

    

   --Office and administrative support was the largest occupational group,

     making up nearly 17 percent of total U.S. 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. Seven of the 10 largest occupations

     were in one of these three groups. The smallest occupational groups

     included legal occupations and life, physical, and social science

     occupations, each making up less than 1 percent of total employment.

    

   --The highest paying occupational groups were management, legal,

     computer and mathematical, and architecture and engineering

     occupations. Most individual occupations in these groups were also

     high paying. For example, of the 35 architecture and engineering

     occupations, only one--surveying and mapping technicians, with an

     annual mean wage of $42,050--had an average wage below the U.S. all-

     occupations mean. (See table 1.)

    

   --The lowest paying occupational groups were food preparation and

     serving related; farming, fishing, and forestry; personal care

     and service; and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

     occupations. Annual mean wages for these groups ranged from $21,430

     for food preparation and serving related occupations to $25,560 for

     building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations. Nearly all

     of the individual occupations in these groups had below-average wages.

     For example, chefs and head cooks was the only food preparation and

     serving related occupation with a mean wage above the U.S. all-

     occupations mean, and 15 of the 18 occupations in this group had

     annual mean wages of $25,000 or less. (See table 1.)

 

AND MUCH MORE...including TABLES....

 

 

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