2002 Occupational Employment and Wages — 2003-11-19

Management and legal occupational groups were the highest paying of the 22 major occupational groups in 2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. The occupational group with the highest employment level in 2002 was office and administrative support workers, followed by sales and related workers, production workers, and food preparation and serving workers. These statistics for wage and salary workers are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Employment Security Agencies (SESAs). The OES survey provides estimates of employment, hourly wages, and annual wages for 22 major occupational groups and for 770 detailed occupations, as defined by the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. (See table A.) The highest-paying major groups in 2002 were management occupations and legal occupations. About 30 percent of the workers in these occupational groups earned more than $43.75 per hour.