Occupational Employment and Wages Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, March 31, 2022 				   USDL-22-0556

Technical information:  (202) 691-6569  *  oewsinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/oes 
Media contact:          (202) 691-5902  *  PressOffice@bls.gov


                      OCCUPATIONAL EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES -- MAY 2021


Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations had employment of 8.8 million in May 2021,
representing 6.2 percent of total national employment, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported today. The largest healthcare practitioners and technical occupations were registered
nurses (3.0 million) and licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (641,240). The
annual mean wage across all healthcare practitioners and technical occupations was $91,100,
compared with the U.S. average wage of $58,260. (See table 1.)

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program provides employment and wage
estimates for about 830 occupations in the nation, states, and approximately 530 areas.
National data are available by industry for approximately 415 industry classifications and
by ownership across all industries and for the educational services and hospitals industries.
This news release features healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, transportation
and material moving occupations, and protective service occupations, in addition to employment
and wages by typical entry-level educational requirement and STEM (science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics) occupations. National employment and wage information for all
occupations is shown in table 1.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________
|											|
|        Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data         |
|											|
| With the May 2021 estimates release, the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics	|
| (OEWS) program has implemented a new model-based (MB3) estimation method. The May	|
| 2021 OEWS estimates are also the first estimates based entirely on survey data	|
| collected using the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. See the	|
| box notes at the end of this news release for more information.			|
|_______________________________________________________________________________________|

 
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations

  --The largest healthcare practitioners and technical occupations were registered nurses
    (3.0 million), licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (641,240), and pharmacy
    technicians (436,630). (See table 1.) Healthcare practitioners and technical is the larger
    of the two healthcare occupational groups and includes occupations like physicians, 
    surgeons, dentists, nurses, therapists, and health technologists and technicians.

  --The highest paying healthcare practitioners and technical occupations included cardiologists,
    anesthesiologists, and oral and maxillofacial surgeons, all with annual mean wages of more than
    $300,000. These specialist physician and dentist occupations were also among the highest paying
    occupations overall. (See table 1.)

  --The lowest paying healthcare practitioners and technical occupations included dietetic
    technicians ($34,160) and emergency medical technicians ($36,690). (See table 1.) 

  --Half of all healthcare practitioners and technical jobs were in general medical and surgical
    hospitals (3.2 million) or offices of physicians (1.2 million). Industries with the largest
    employment of healthcare practitioners and technical occupations also included outpatient care
    centers (408,420) and health and personal care stores (380,930).

  --California ($115,220), Hawaii ($113,370), and New Jersey ($112,860) were the states with the
    highest wages for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations.

National industry-specific data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrci.htm.

State data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm.

Transportation and material moving occupations

  --Transportation and material moving occupations had employment of 12.6 million, representing
    9.0 percent of U.S. employment, and an annual mean wage of $41,340. (See table 1.)

  --The largest transportation and material moving occupations were laborers and hand freight, 
    stock, and material movers (2.7 million) and stockers and order fillers (2.5 million). (See
    table 1.)

  --The highest paying transportation and material moving occupations were airline pilots, copilots,
    and flight engineers ($198,190) and air traffic controllers ($127,920). (See table 1.)

  --The lowest paying occupations in this group included parking attendants ($29,210) and automotive
    and watercraft service attendants ($29,960). (See table 1.)

  --Transportation and material moving occupations made up 20.3 percent of employment in Stockton-
    Lodi, CA, compared with 9.0 percent nationally. Metropolitan areas with the highest shares of
    transportation and material moving occupations also included Memphis, TN-MS-AR (17.4 percent),
    and Chambersburg-Waynesboro, PA (16.8 percent).

Metropolitan area data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm.

Protective service occupations

  --Protective service occupations had employment of 3.4 million, representing 2.4 percent of U.S.
    employment. The annual mean wage for protective service occupations was $53,420. (See table 1.)

  --The largest protective service occupations were security guards (1.1 million), police and 
    sheriff's patrol officers (665,380), and correctional officers and jailers (392,600). 
    (See table 1.)

  --The highest paying protective service occupations were first-line supervisors of police and
    detectives ($98,760) and detectives and criminal investigators ($90,370). The lowest paying
    protective service occupations were lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective 
    service workers ($27,320) and school bus monitors ($30,220). (See table 1.)

  --The largest protective service occupation, security guards, had an annual mean wage of $35,830
    nationally. The District of Columbia ($52,840) and Alaska ($49,040) had among the highest average
    wages for this occupation. The lowest paying states for security guards included Mississippi 
    ($27,650) and Alabama ($27,670).

  --About 1.4 million protective service jobs were in local government, excluding schools and hospitals,
    representing 41 percent of employment in this occupational group. After local government, the 
    industries with the largest employment of protective service occupations were investigation and
    security services (721,420) and state government, excluding schools and hospitals (381,880).

Largest occupations

  --The largest occupations overall were retail salespersons (3.7 million), home health and personal
    care aides (3.4 million), cashiers (3.3 million), and fast food and counter workers (3.1 million).
    (See table 1.) 

  --Eight of the 10 largest occupations had below-average wages, including retail salespersons ($31,920)
    and home health and personal care aides ($29,260). (See table 1.) 

  --Of the 10 largest occupations, registered nurses ($82,750) and general and operations managers
    ($115,250) were the only occupations with above-average wages. (See table 1.)

Public sector occupations

  --The public sector made up 15.0 percent of employment and had a different occupational mix from
    the private sector. 

  --Several of the largest public sector occupations were related to education. These occupations
    included elementary school teachers, except special education (public sector employment of 1.2
    million); teaching assistants, except postsecondary (952,910); secondary school teachers, except
    special and career/technical education (877,700); and middle school teachers, except special and
    career/technical education (527,110).

  --Outside of the educational instruction and library group, the occupations with the highest public
    sector employment included police and sheriff's patrol officers (659,050); registered nurses
    (522,500); and janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners (469,960).

Public/private sector ownership data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrci.htm.

Typical entry-level education

  --Preschool teachers, except special education (391,670) and paralegals and legal assistants 
    (336,250) were the largest occupations typically requiring an associate's degree for entry.
    Occupations in this educational category made up about 2 percent of total employment.

  --Occupations typically requiring a high school diploma or the equivalent for entry made up 39
    percent of employment, and occupations typically requiring no formal educational credential for
    entry made up 22 percent of employment. These two educational categories include many production
    and construction occupations, as well as large occupations like retail salespersons and home
    health and personal care aides. 

  --Occupations typically requiring postsecondary education for entry made up nearly 40 percent of
    employment. The largest postsecondary category, occupations typically requiring a bachelor's
    degree for entry, made up over 24 percent of employment. This educational category includes
    registered nurses; teachers at the kindergarten through secondary levels; and many management,
    business and financial operations, computer, and engineering occupations.

  --Average wages were generally higher for occupations requiring more education. Annual mean wages
    were $31,810 for occupations typically requiring no formal educational credential for entry,
    $46,760 for occupations typically requiring a high school diploma or the equivalent, $60,180
    for occupations typically requiring an associate's degree, and $93,590 for occupations typically
    requiring a bachelor's degree.

  --The highest paying occupations typically requiring an associate's degree for entry were air
    traffic controllers ($127,920), nuclear technicians ($95,200), and radiation therapists ($94,000).

The typical education level required to enter an occupation is based on education and training categories
from the BLS Employment Projections program. More information about the system of education and training
categories is available at www.bls.gov/emp/documentation/education/tech.htm. Typical entry-level 
educational requirements assigned to each occupation in the May 2021 OEWS estimates are available at
www.bls.gov/oes/educ_list_2021.xlsx. Additional charts are available at 
www.bls.gov/oes/current/overview_2021.htm.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations

  --There were nearly 9.3 million STEM jobs representing 6.6 percent of total U.S. employment.

  --The six largest STEM occupations were related to computers and included software developers (1.4
    million) and computer user support specialists (654,310). (See table 1.) The largest STEM occupations
    not related to computers were civil engineers (304,310) and industrial engineers (293,950). 

  --Areas with the highest employment shares of STEM occupations were California-Lexington Park, MD
    (24.4 percent), and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (22.1 percent).

  --Industries with the highest shares of STEM occupations included computer systems design and related
    services (62.5 percent); architectural, engineering, and related services (61.1 percent); and
    software publishers (57.1 percent). 

  --STEM occupations had an annual mean wage of $100,900, compared with $55,260 for non-STEM occupations.
    Ninety-two of the 105 STEM occupations had mean wages significantly above the all-occupations average
    of $58,260. (See table 1.)

  --The highest paying STEM occupations were the three STEM-related management occupations--computer and
    information systems managers ($162,930), architectural and engineering managers ($158,970), and
    natural sciences managers ($156,110)--and physicists ($151,580). (See table 1.)

  --The lowest paying STEM occupations were forest and conservation technicians ($43,420) and 
    agricultural technicians ($44,850). (See table 1.)

Occupations included in the STEM definition used for this news release are available at 
www.bls.gov/oes/stem_list_2021.xlsx. Additional STEM charts are available at 
www.bls.gov/oes/current/overview_2021.htm.

  ________________________________________________________________________________________________
 | 												  |
 |             Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Methodology             |
 |												  |
 | With the May 2021 estimates, the OEWS program has implemented a new estimation method. This	  |
 | model-based method, called MB3, has advantages over the previous estimation method, as	  |
 | described in the Monthly Labor Review article at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/model-	  |
 | based-estimates-for-the-occupational-employment-statistics-program.htm. For more information,  |
 | see the May 2021 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement at www.bls.gov/oes/methods_21.pdf.	  |
 | OEWS estimates for the years 2015-19 were recalculated using the new estimation method and	  |
 | are available as research estimates at www.bls.gov/oes/oes-mb3-methods.htm. 			  |
 |________________________________________________________________________________________________|


  ________________________________________________________________________________________________
 |												  |
 |            Implementing the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System             |
 |												  |
 | The May 2021 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be based entirely on survey data	  |
 | collected using the 2018 SOC. May 2021 OEWS data are available for most 2018 SOC detailed	  |
 | occupations. To improve data quality, the OEWS program aggregates some occupations to the 	  |
 | SOC broad occupation level or as OEWS-specific combinations of 2018 SOC detailed occupations.  |
 |________________________________________________________________________________________________|