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Careers with Largest Employment

These are the occupations that employed the most people in 2016 (for states) or 2018 (nationally). You can view this list for any state by changing the location shown to the left.

We found 808 occupations in United States.

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Rank	Occupation	2018 Employment	Earnings	Typical Education
Rank	Occupation	2018 Employment	Earnings	Typical Education	1	Retail salespersons	4,510,900	No formal educational credential
2	Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food	3,704,200		No formal educational credential
3	Cashiers	3,648,500		No formal educational credential
4	Office clerks, general	3,158,500		High school diploma or equivalent
5	Registered nurses	3,059,800		Bachelor's degree
6	Customer service representatives	2,972,600		High school diploma or equivalent
7	Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	2,953,800		No formal educational credential
8	Waiters and waitresses	2,634,600		No formal educational credential
9	Personal care aides	2,421,200		High school diploma or equivalent
10	Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners	2,404,400		No formal educational credential
11	Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	2,382,500		High school diploma or equivalent
12	General and operations managers	2,376,400		Bachelor's degree
13	Stock clerks and order fillers	2,056,600		High school diploma or equivalent
14	Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	1,958,800		Postsecondary non-degree award
15	Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	1,707,700		Some college, no degree
16	First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	1,557,500		High school diploma or equivalent
17	First-line supervisors of retail sales workers	1,548,300		High school diploma or equivalent
18	Nursing assistants	1,513,200		Postsecondary non-degree award
19	Maids and housekeeping cleaners	1,494,400		No formal educational credential
20	Maintenance and repair workers, general	1,488,000		High school diploma or equivalent
21	Elementary school teachers, except special education	1,434,400		Bachelor's degree
22	Accountants and auditors	1,424,000		Bachelor's degree
23	Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products	1,406,400		High school diploma or equivalent
24	Construction laborers	1,405,000		No formal educational credential
25	Teacher assistants	1,380,300		Some college, no degree
26	Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers	1,379,400		High school diploma or equivalent
27	Cooks, restaurant	1,362,300		No formal educational credential
28	Landscaping and groundskeeping workers	1,205,200		No formal educational credential
29	Childcare workers	1,160,000		High school diploma or equivalent
30	Security guards	1,143,800		High school diploma or equivalent
31	Business operations specialists, all other	1,135,700		Bachelor's degree
32	Receptionists and information clerks	1,101,500		High school diploma or equivalent
33	Managers, all other	1,079,600		Bachelor's degree
34	Secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education	1,072,500		Bachelor's degree
35	Sales representatives, services, all other	1,060,600		High school diploma or equivalent
36	Carpenters	1,006,500		High school diploma or equivalent
37	Light truck or delivery services drivers	1,001,300		High school diploma or equivalent
38	First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers	988,900		High school diploma or equivalent
39	Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers	975,400		High school diploma or equivalent
40	Software developers, applications	944,200		Bachelor's degree
41	Management analysts	876,300		Bachelor's degree
42	Food preparation workers	842,100		No formal educational credential
43	Home health aides	831,800		High school diploma or equivalent
44	Lawyers	823,900		Doctoral or professional degree
45	Automotive service technicians and mechanics	770,100		Postsecondary non-degree award
46	Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	728,900		Postsecondary non-degree award
47	Electricians	715,400		High school diploma or equivalent
48	Police and sheriff's patrol officers	687,100		High school diploma or equivalent
49	Medical assistants	686,600		Postsecondary non-degree award
50	Hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists	683,800		Postsecondary non-degree award

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Typical Education

High school diploma or equivalent (333)
Bachelor's degree (171)
Some high school (105)
Master's degree or higher (100)
Some college (52)
Associate's degree (47)

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About this data

Data for this report come from the U.S. Department of Labor.

State-level employment data for 2016 come from Projections Central and each state's Labor Market Information office.

National employment data come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2018-28.

Earnings data come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) May 2019 survey.

Typical education data come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, Education and training assignments by detailed occupation, 2018.

Learn more about these reports at the Help page below.

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Department of Labor. United States of America

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