Largest Jobs in America and What They Pay (2026)
Home Health and Personal Care Aides is the largest US occupation, with 4,305,810 jobs and a median wage of $35,800 (BLS, OEWS May 2025, via PayCrunch).
Wage estimates: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Rankings, ratios and shares on this page are PayCrunch calculations from that national file. Figures are annual and not adjusted for cost of living.
The 50 largest detailed occupations in the United States by national employment, and the median annual wage of each, from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national file.
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Home Health and Personal Care Aides is the largest US occupation, with 4,305,810 jobs and a median wage of $35,800 (BLS, OEWS May 2025, via PayCrunch).
Key statistics
Each line is one figure with its source. Quote any of them directly; the citation format is at the foot of the page.
- Home Health and Personal Care Aides is the largest US occupation, with 4,305,810 jobs and a national median wage of $35,800.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- Total US employment in the release is 155,495,730, with an all-occupations median wage of $50,980.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- The 25 largest occupations account for 36.6% of all US jobs.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- 18 of the 25 largest occupations (with a published median) earn a median below the all-occupations median of $50,980.Source: PayCrunch calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- Retail Salespersons: 3,897,860 jobs, median $35,410.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- Fast Food and Counter Workers: 3,854,050 jobs, median $31,200.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- General and Operations Managers: 3,503,020 jobs, median $105,770.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
- The national file lists 830 detailed occupations.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025.
The 50 largest occupations by employment
Ranked by national employment. The median is the annual median wage BLS publishes for that occupation.
| Occupation▲ | SOC▲ | Employment▲ | Median annual wage▲ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | 31-1120 | 4,305,810 | $35,800 |
| Retail Salespersons | 41-2031 | 3,897,860 | $35,410 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 35-3023 | 3,854,050 | $31,200 |
| General and Operations Managers | 11-1021 | 3,503,020 | $105,770 |
| Registered Nurses | 29-1141 | 3,379,720 | $97,550 |
| Cashiers | 41-2011 | 3,089,410 | $32,880 |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 53-7062 | 2,950,280 | $40,240 |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 53-7065 | 2,833,810 | $37,330 |
| Customer Service Representatives | 43-4051 | 2,595,750 | $44,770 |
| Office Clerks, General | 43-9061 | 2,464,940 | $45,010 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | 35-3031 | 2,270,910 | $35,230 |
| Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners | 37-2011 | 2,209,760 | $36,840 |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | 53-3032 | 2,062,040 | $58,640 |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 43-6014 | 1,706,790 | $47,540 |
| Software Developers | 15-1252 | 1,687,890 | $135,980 |
| Maintenance and Repair Workers, General | 49-9071 | 1,529,700 | $49,590 |
| Accountants and Auditors | 13-2011 | 1,449,500 | $83,680 |
| Nursing Assistants | 31-1131 | 1,448,910 | $42,260 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 43-1011 | 1,436,680 | $69,500 |
| Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary | 25-9045 | 1,420,350 | $36,780 |
| Cooks, Restaurant | 35-2014 | 1,409,890 | $37,390 |
| Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators | 51-2090 | 1,405,030 | $44,650 |
| Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 25-2021 | 1,388,390 | $63,970 |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 43-3031 | 1,373,680 | $50,670 |
| Security Guards | 33-9032 | 1,283,470 | $38,020 |
| Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel | 41-3091 | 1,256,010 | $69,990 |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 41-4012 | 1,238,190 | $72,080 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers | 35-1012 | 1,223,240 | $44,080 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers | 41-1011 | 1,121,800 | $48,520 |
| Construction Laborers | 47-2061 | 1,096,780 | $47,120 |
| Business Operations Specialists, All Other | 13-1199 | 1,087,090 | $83,050 |
| Project Management Specialists | 13-1082 | 1,066,670 | $102,320 |
| Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 25-2031 | 1,065,210 | $72,040 |
| Light Truck Drivers | 53-3033 | 983,300 | $44,860 |
| Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 43-6013 | 961,610 | $45,930 |
| Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers | 37-3011 | 952,640 | $39,150 |
| Human Resources Specialists | 13-1071 | 912,430 | $75,940 |
| Receptionists and Information Clerks | 43-4171 | 910,180 | $38,010 |
| Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists | 13-1161 | 899,580 | $78,760 |
| Management Analysts | 13-1111 | 898,280 | $101,860 |
| Food Preparation Workers | 35-2021 | 893,600 | $35,320 |
| Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners | 37-2012 | 860,670 | $35,510 |
| Financial Managers | 11-3031 | 841,710 | $166,570 |
| Medical Assistants | 31-9092 | 817,870 | $45,690 |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 43-5071 | 816,870 | $45,260 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers | 47-1011 | 812,210 | $79,920 |
| Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators | 53-7051 | 774,420 | $46,420 |
| Electricians | 47-2111 | 757,220 | $63,190 |
| Bartenders | 35-3011 | 756,390 | $34,340 |
| Lawyers | 23-1011 | 754,500 | $159,670 |
National figures, BLS OEWS May 2025. Click a column to sort.
How to cite this page
Ready to paste for the page:
PayCrunch (2026). Largest Jobs in America and What They Pay (2026). Aggregated from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://paycrunch.co/stats/largest-occupations-statistics.html (accessed 14 October 2026).
Ready to paste for the lead figure on this page:
Home Health and Personal Care Aides is the largest US occupation, with 4,305,810 jobs and a median wage of $35,800 (BLS, OEWS May 2025, via PayCrunch).
Method
Source
Every wage and employment figure on this page comes from the national file of the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release of May 2025, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. No wage here is a PayCrunch estimate. Rankings, ratios and shares are PayCrunch calculations from that file and are labelled as such.
What is counted
This page ranks detailed SOC occupations by national employment. The 50 largest are in the table. The share is employment in the 25 largest divided by employment on the all-occupations row (155,495,730). The count below the all-occupations median uses the 25 largest detailed occupations that publish an annual median.
Rows left out
An occupation with no published annual median or percentile is left out of any ranking that needs that figure. In this release that is a handful of occupations for which BLS publishes an hourly wage only. The all-occupations median, and the all-occupations 10th and 90th percentiles, are the single total row in the file. That row describes workers. It is not the median of the occupation-level medians, which is a different statistic and is published on the average salary statistics page.
Rebuilding these numbers
The script that computes every figure on this page is .github/stats-gen/gen_national_stats_pages.py. It reads data/open/national_M2025_dl.xlsx and regenerates this page. Nothing on this page is typed by hand.
Limitations
- OEWS is a survey. Every figure carries sampling error, and the error is largest where the occupation is smallest.
- Wage and salary employment only. OEWS excludes the self-employed, so occupations with many independent workers are under-covered.
- The 90th percentile is not a maximum. It is a point on a wage distribution. Pay above it exists.
- No cost-of-living adjustment. All figures are nominal annual wages.
- SOC titles are classification labels, not job titles as employers use them, and one SOC code can cover several distinct jobs.
- One release only. These are May 2025 figures; OEWS releases are not straightforwardly comparable across years.
Frequently asked questions
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