Service Occupations

Major Occupation Group

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2022 Workforce
24.9M
Average Age
38.4
Average Salary
$31,924
Average Male Salary
$39,254
Average Female Salary
$26,005

About

Service Occupations are most often employed by the Restaurants & Food Services industry. The average yearly wage for Service Occupations was $31,924 in 2022.

About the photo: Ristorante Italiano in New York City
Photo by Michele Ursino

Employment

Employment and salary information for the Service Occupations workforce. Service Occupations workforce in 2022 was 24,863,781 people, of which 55.3% were women and 44.7% were men. Service Occupations are paid most in Suffolk County (North Central)--Brookhaven Town (North) PUMA, NY but are relatively concentrated in NYC-Bronx Community Districts 1 & 2--Melrose, Mott Haven, Longwood, & Hunts Point PUMA, NY.

Employment Over Time

Metric
Grouping
11,107,553
Male Workforce
± 78.8k
13,756,228
Female Workforce
± 86.8k

The Service Occupations workforce in 2022 was 24,863,781 people (55.3% women and 44.7% men). This implies an average annual growth of 2.31% between 2014 (24,302,152) and 2022 (24,863,781).

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Employment by Location

Level
Metric

This map shows the states in the United States shaded by average wage for Service Occupations.

During 2022, the states that concentrated the best average annual wage were District of Columbia ($41,237), Hawaii ($38,811), and Maryland ($38,562).

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Yearly Wage Ranking

$31,924
AVERAGE WAGE
#6 in the ranking (2022)
$64,683
NATIONAL AVERAGE WAGE
For all occupations across the US

In 2022, Service Occupations earned an average of $31,924, $32,759 less than the average national salary of $64,683

Service Occupations are the lowest paid occupation in the US followed by Production, Transportation, & Material Moving Occupations. This chart shows the various occupations closest to Service Occupations as measured by average annual salary in the US.

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Wage Distribution

Gender
0.456
WAGE GINI

In 2022, Service Occupations had a wage GINI coefficient of 0.456, which is lower than the national average of 0.478. In other words, wages are distributed more evenly for Service Occupations (shown in red) than for the overall labor force (shown in gray).

The graphic shows the distribution of average salaries by buckets for Service Occupations compared to the entire workforce in the country.

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Industry

Information on the industries that employ Service Occupations and on wages for those in the field. Restaurants & Food Services is the industry that employs the most Service Occupations, both by share and by number, though the highest paid industry for Service Occupations, by average wage, is Pipeline transportation ($92,042).

Occupations by Industries

Metric
Value
24.9M
2022 Workforce
± 111,971
−0.876%
1 YEAR GROWTH
± 0.641%

This graphic shows the share of Service Occupations employed by various industries. Restaurants & Food Services employs the largest share of Service Occupations at 68.4%, followed by Justice, public order, & safety activities with 19.3% and General medical and surgical hospitals, and specialty (except psychiatric and substance abuse) hospitals with 12.3%.

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Diversity

Demographic information on Service Occupations in the US. The workforce of Service Occupations in 2022 was 24,863,781 people, with 55.3% woman, and 44.7% men. The average age of male Service Occupations in the workforce is 38.2 and of female Service Occupations is 38.5, and the most common race/ethnicity for Service Occupations is White.

Gender and Age

Metric

The workforce of Service Occupations in 2022 was 24,863,781 people, with 55.3% woman, and 44.7% men.

The age ranges that concentrated the largest workforce were 20 to 24 years (3,782,284 people), 25 to 29 years (2,925,458  people), and 30 to 34 years (2,542,725 people). Among them they concentrated 37.2% of the total workforce.

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Ethnicity

Gender

In 2022, 24.8% of Service Occupations workers were Hispanic and 75.2% non-Hispanic.

The treemap shows the distribution of Hispanic workers according to their origin, highlighting Mexican (78.1%), Puerto Rican (15)%, and Salvadoran (6.95)%

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Races

In 2022, 58.2% of the Service Occupations workforce were White, of which 54.6% were women and 45.4% men. Other races that concentrated a significant number of workers were Black (16.5%) and Two or More Races (9.6%).

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Education & Skills

Data on higher education choices for Service Occupations from The Department of Education and Census Bureau. The most common major for Service Occupations is Business but the most specialized major according to RCA in 2022 were Personal & Culinary Services.

Among the necessary skills for Service Occupations, Active Listening stands, but the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) shows that Service Occupations need more than the average amount of Operation and Control.

Majors

ACS PUMS data only shows the major for bachelor's degrees. However, we can filter the data based on highest degree obtained.
Type of Majors
Degree

The most common majors achieved by Service Occupations in 2022 (counting all academic degrees) were Business (589,278 people), Protective Services (341,154 people), and Health (262,926 people).

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Education Levels

Metric

The main educational levels achieved by the Service Occupations workers were High School or Equivalent (8,296,618 people), Some college (6,695,569 people), and Secondary Education (3,049,397 people).

The graphic shows the Service Occupations workforce by gender and educational level.

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Skills

Chart
Value

Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for Service Occupations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Service Occupations need many skills, but most especially Active Listening, Monitoring, Social Perceptiveness.

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