Occupational Employment Statistics

Data tables for the overview of May 2012 occupational employment and wages

Employment and wages for the largest occupations, May 2012
Occupation	Percent Employment	Employment	Hourly Mean Wage	Annual Mean Wage
Retail salespersons	3.3	4,340,000	$12.17	$25,310
Cashiers	2.5	3,314,010	9.79	20,370
Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food	2.3	2,943,810	9.00	18,720
Office clerks, general	2.2	2,808,100	14.07	29,270
Registered nurses	2.0	2,633,980	32.66	67,930
Waiters and waitresses	1.8	2,332,020	9.95	20,710
Customer service representatives	1.8	2,299,750	15.92	33,110
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	1.6	2,143,940	12.70	26,410
Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners	1.6	2,097,380	11.95	24,850
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	1.6	2,085,680	16.13	33,560

Employment and wages for the smallest occupations, May 2012
Occupation	Employment	Hourly Mean Wage	Annual Mean Wage
Prosthodontists	310	$80.83	$168,120
Patternmakers, wood	770	19.73	41,030
Fabric menders, except garment	770	13.72	28,540
Industrial-organizational psychologists	1,030	47.50	98,800
Farm labor contractors	1,030	18.55	38,590
Timing device assemblers and adjusters	1,140	13.98	29,080
Mathematical technicians	1,150	30.87	64,220
Mathematical science occupations, all other	1,220	30.41	63,250
Model makers, wood	1,270	15.26	31,740
Radio operators	1,280	20.79	43,240

Percent of total U.S. employment for the largest and smallest occupational groups, May 2012
Occupation	Employment	Percent Employment	Hourly Mean Wage	Annual Mean Wage
All occupations	130,287,700	100.00%	$22.01	$45,790
Office and administrative support	21,355,350	16.39	16.54	34,410
Sales and related	13,835,090	10.62	18.26	37,990
Food preparation and serving related	11,546,880	8.86	10.28	21,380
Transportation and material moving	8,771,690	6.73	16.15	33,590
Production	8,594,170	6.60	16.59	34,500
Architecture and engineering	2,356,530	1.81	37.98	79,000
Community and social service	1,882,080	1.44	21.27	44,240
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1,750,130	1.34	26.20	54,490
Life, physical, and social science	1,104,100	0.85	32.87	68,360
Legal	1,023,020	0.79	47.39	98,570

Employment in the life, physical, and social science major occupational group, May 2012
SOC code	Occupation	Employment	Type
19-1000	Life scientists	260,030	minor
19-3000	Social scientists and related workers	235,390	minor
19-4000	Life, physical, and social science technicians	334,060	minor
19-2000	Physical Scientists	274,610	minor
19-2010	Astronomers and physicists	19,960	broad
19-2020	Atmospheric and space scientists	10,190	broad
19-2030	Chemists and materials scientists	92,920	broad
19-2040	Environmental scientists and geoscientists	126,300	broad
19-2090	Miscellaneous physical scientists	25,230	broad

Employment for the largest occupations in the private sector, May 2012
Occupation	Employment
Retail salespersons	4,330,340
Cashiers	3,267,150
Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food	2,788,440
Waiters and waitresses	2,319,230
Office clerks, general	2,286,250
Customer service representatives	2,226,350
Registered nurses	2,168,910
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	2,091,780
Stock clerks and order fillers	1,768,790
General and operations managers	1,762,660

Employment for the largest occupations in the public sector, May 2012
Occupation	Employment
Elementary school teachers, except special education	1,230,050
Teacher assistants	922,400
Secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education	853,090
Police and sheriff's patrol officers	627,120
Middle school teachers, except special and career/technical education	566,430
Substitute teachers	556,310
Office clerks, general	521,850
Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners	502,690
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	481,690
Registered nurses	465,070

Employment for the largest occupations in federal government, May 2012
Occupation	Employment
Postal service mail carriers	305,490
Business operations specialists, all other	171,770
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	134,230
Information and record clerks, all other	73,820
Computer occupations, all other	73,260
Postal service clerks	69,240
Registered nurses	67,770
Managers, all other	62,900
Management analysts	57,590
Compliance officers	53,910

Employment for the largest occupations in state government, May 2012
Occupation	Employment
Correctional officers and jailers	237,380
Office clerks, general	183,800
Registered nurses	138,210
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	128,280
Graduate teaching assistants	91,970
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	87,710
Postsecondary teachers, all other	85,820
Business operations specialists, all other	84,520
Health specialties teachers, postsecondary	79,730
Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners	71,310

Employment for the largest occupations in local government, May 2012
Occupation	Employment
Elementary school teachers, except special education	1,222,460
Teacher assistants	885,670
Secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education	845,880
Middle school teachers, except special and career/technical education	564,190
Substitute teachers	550,670
Police and sheriff's patrol officers	545,130
Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners	404,920
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	332,550
Office clerks, general	317,180
Firefighters	270,920

Planes, trains, and automobiles: states with the highest location quotients in select transportation and material moving occupations, May 2012
State	Occupational location quotients
State	Commercial pilots	Taxi drivers and chauffeurs	Subway and streetcar operators
Alaska	10.1	0.6	*
North Dakota	2.5	1.7	*
Nevada	1.9	7.6	*
Connecticut	1.0	1.8	*
Maryland	0.2	1.3	12.0
New York	0.4	1.3	5.4

* Estimate not released

Occupations with the highest concentration of employment in metropolitan areas, May 2012
Occupation	Percent of employment in metropolitan areas
Flight attendants	99.9
Makeup artists, theatrical and performance	99.3
Subway and streetcar operators	99.2
Models	98.8
Multimedia artists and animators	98.6
Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers	98.5
Actuaries	98.5
Agents and business managers of artists, performers, and athletes	98.4
Software developers, systems software	98.3
Biochemists and biophysicists	98.2
Film and video editors	98.2
Medical scientists, except epidemiologists	98.2
Actors	98.0
Financial analysts	98.0
Semiconductor processors	97.9
Shampooers	97.8
Prosthodontists	97.8
Software developers, applications	97.7
Art directors	97.7
Computer hardware engineers	97.6

Occupations with the highest concentration of employment in nonmetropolitan areas, May 2012
Occupation	Percent of employment in nonmetropolitan areas
Mine shuttle car operators	77.8
Log graders and scalers	75.4
Loading machine operators, underground mining	73.3
Roof bolters, mining	72.3
Logging equipment operators	69.7
Fallers	62.7
Logging workers, all other	59.6
Continuous mining machine operators	59.6
Mine cutting and channeling machine operators	58.5
Forest and conservation technicians	56.4
Slaughterers and meat packers	55.3
Postmasters and mail superintendents	55.0
Explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blasters	54.4
Fishers and related fishing workers	54.4
Farm equipment mechanics and service technicians	53.4
Roustabouts, oil and gas	52.3
Mining machine operators, all other	50.9
Wellhead pumpers	50.7
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	50.2
Helpers--extraction workers	50.2

Last Modified Date: March 29, 2013