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The missing middle in the US: Job growth is highest in the top fifth and bottom fifth of occupations, by mean annual earnings

About this data

Source
US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
July 24, 2020
Date range
0–0
Unit
thousands of employees

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

US Bureau of Labor Statistics – Employment Projections and Occupational Employment Statistics

Retrieved on
July 24, 2020
Retrieved from
https://www.bls.gov/emp/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014) 'Employment Projections'; US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) 'Occupational Employment Statistics'.
Retrieved on
July 24, 2020
Retrieved from
https://www.bls.gov/emp/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014) 'Employment Projections'; US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) 'Occupational Employment Statistics'.

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: The missing middle in the US: Job growth is highest in the top fifth and bottom fifth of occupations, by mean annual earnings”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260513-060106/grapher/the-missing-middle-in-the-us-job-growth-is-highest-in-the-top-fifth-and-bottom-fifth-of-occupations-by-mean-annual-earnings.html [online resource] (archived on May 13, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) – processed by Our World in Data. “The missing middle in the US: Job growth is highest in the top fifth and bottom fifth of occupations, by mean annual earnings” [dataset]. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment Projections and Occupational Employment Statistics” [original data]. Retrieved May 13, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260513-060106/grapher/the-missing-middle-in-the-us-job-growth-is-highest-in-the-top-fifth-and-bottom-fifth-of-occupations-by-mean-annual-earnings.html (archived on May 13, 2026).

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