November 2004 Occupational Employment and Wages — 2005-11-09

Management and legal occupational groups were the two highest paying of the 22 major occupational groups in November 2004, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Over 30 percent of the workers in these occupational groups earned more than $43.75 per hour. (See table A.) The major occupational group with the highest employment level in November 2004 was office and administrative support workers, followed by sales and related workers, food preparation and serving workers, and production workers. These estimates for wage and salary workers are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies. The OES survey provides nation- al, state, and metropolitan area estimates of employment, hourly wages, and annual wages for 22 major occupational groups and for all 801 non-mili- tary detailed occupations, as defined by the Standard Occupational Classifi- cation (SOC) system.