The Department of Labor has compiled a list of the 20 most common jobs for employed women in 2006, along with median pay for each occupation and the percentage of people in each job who are women. The most common occupation is secretary or administrative assistant, accounting for one in 20 (3.4 million) employed women. I found that nearly half (43.7%) of all employed women hold one of these 20 jobs, most of which involve office and administrative support (10.9 million), sales and retail (6.5 million), or teaching (4.3 million).
Women in these 20 occupations receive $100 less a week in median earnings than the total for all employed women. Out of the 20, Registered nurses are paid the most on average ($971/week) while cashiers are paid the least ($327/week).
The top ten, and number of women in each occupation:
- Secretaries and admin. assistants (3,348,000)
- Registered Nurses (2,309,000)
- Cashiers (2,291,000)
- Elementary and middle school teachers (2,220,000)
- Retail salespersons (1,740,000)
- Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides (1,694,000)
- First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers (1,436,000)
- Waiters and waitresses (1,401,000)
- Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (1,364,000)
- Customer service representatives (1,349,000)
For a more general overview of employment in the U.S., check out pages 101-109 in the 2007 World Almanac.
