Some U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data on the electrical market that doesn’t see the sun often enough is its information on electricians, published annually each May in the annual Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics information.
The most recent BLS download on electricians showed that electrician employment through May 2023 hit 712,580 and increased +3.3% on a national basis with an increase of 22,530 employees. The mean average hourly wage was $32.60 and the average annual wage for electricians came in at $67,810.
Twenty-one of the 394 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) (in map above) for which annual wage data is available topped that average, led by California’s San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA at $102.590 and the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward MSA at $102,230. Those two markets also have the highest mean average hourly wages, with both MSAs topping $49 per hour in hourly pay.
Several perennially fast-growing metros saw some impressive year-over-year gains in electricians employment last year, with the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ, MSA seeing an increase of 1,910 workers (+15.5%), followed by Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX, MSA (up 1,440 electricians for a +7.9% increase); and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL, MSA, which employed 1,420 more electricians in 2023 (+12.9%).
BLS publishes a mountain of data on other topics at www.bls.gov, including statistics on employment, wages, unemployment, inflation and pricing. Much of the data is published on a monthly basis, and it’s very often available down to the MSA and county levels.
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