July 2014 Employment Blog

By Stephen Singer, July 15, 2014

This information was provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Employment Report. It was also obtained from the Bureau’s Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program.

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 288,000 in June, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 6.1 percent. Job gains were widespread, led by employment growth in professional and business services, retail trade, food services, and health care. Incorporating the revisions for April and May, which increased total nonfarm employment by 29,000 on net, monthly job gains have averaged 272,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 months prior to June, employment growth averaged 201,000 per month. Charts 1 and 2 summarize employment levels and unemployment rates for the last 12 months.

The 10 largest occupations accounted for 21 percent of total employment in May 2013. In addition to retail salespersons and cashiers, the largest occupations included combined food preparation and serving workers including fast food; general office clerks; registered nurses; waiters and waitresses; and customer service representatives. (See chart 1a.)

Most of the largest occupations were relatively low paying. Of the 10 largest occupations, only registered nurses, with an annual mean wage of $68,910, had an average wage above the U.S. all-occupations mean of $22.33 per hour or $46,440 annually. Annual mean wages for the rest of the 10 largest occupations ranged from $18,880 for combined food preparation and serving workers to $34,000 for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive. (See chart 2a.)

Office and administrative support was the largest occupational group, making up about 16 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 nearly 11 percent and 9 percent of U.S. employment, respectively. Seven of the 10 largest occupations were in one of these three groups. Legal occupations and life, physical, and social science occupations were among the smallest occupational groups, each making up less than 1 percent of total employment. (See chart 3.)