May 2010 Occupational Employment and Wages — 2011-05-17

Retail salespersons and cashiers were the occupations with the highest employment in 2010, 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 4.2 and 3.4 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 for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and nearly 800 detailed occupations. OES produces cross-industry occupational employment and wage data for the nation, states, metropolitan areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas; industry-specific data for the nation; and data by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. --The 10 largest occupations accounted for more than 20 percent of total employment in May 2010.