Infographic: Earnings by Industry Sector and Education

We previously released two interesting treemaps produced by Catherine Mulbrandon at VisualizingEconomics.com. In this post we have two more that show income by industry and education for all occupations in the US. These will be posted in An Illustrated Guide to Income in the United States, a booklet from Catherine set to be released this summer.

Quick note on the data: These graphics are based on EMSI’s labor market database, which is a combination of over 80 public and private data sources. More specifically, the first table shows earnings by occupation by industry (based on 2-digit supersectors, as defined by the North America Industry Classification System) and the second shows earnings by occupation by education level.

Each square on the graphic indicates a specific 5-digit occupation classified by the Standard Occupational Classification system. There are over 800 unique squares present on the charts. Large squares, like the ones on the upper right and in the retail trade sector, indicate a lot of jobs for the specific occupation code. Smaller squares indicate occupations with fewer jobs.

Enjoy!

Observations:

• Each industry sector has a mixture of high- and low-wage jobs
• Accommodation and food services, retail trade, real estate, and agriculture have a high proportion of light green squares, indicating a large majority of the jobs are low-paying.
• Educational services, professional/scientific/technical services, and management of companies seem to have a higher proportion of dark green squares, indicating higher-wage jobs.
• Government, health care and manufacturing have a strong mix of light and dark green.
• Construction looks to be the sector with the most “income equality.”
• The large dark square in health care is physicians and surgeons.

Observations: Interpretation on this one is pretty easy – education and earnings are clearly correlated. Short-term OJT is the lowest paying sector, and professional degrees (physicians and surgeons, lawyers) are the highest.

Find out more about EMSI and our data here. You can reach us via Twitter @DesktopEcon or by emailing Rob Sentz ([email protected]). Be sure to keep an eye on VisualizingEconomics.com.

Read more at Economic Modeling Specialists (EMSI blog)