Electricians held about 821,000 jobs in the United States in 2025, and the occupation is projected to reach 896,900 jobs by 2035. The latest figures show a career with wide pay variation, strong concentrations in several states and metropolitan areas, and a projected growth rate above the broader labor market. The comparisons below distinguish 2025 outlook data from May 2023 and May 2024 wage and employment estimates.
Table of contents
- National employment and wage benchmarks
- How electrician pay is distributed
- Industries employing electricians
- States with the most electrician jobs
- Job concentration and state pay
- Metropolitan employment and wages
- Electrician job outlook
National employment and wage benchmarks
The Occupational Outlook Handbook from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports about 821,000 electrician jobs in 2025. Its May 2025 wage figures put the median annual wage at $63,190 and the median hourly wage at $30.38. Median pay divides the occupation into two equal groups: half of electricians earned more and half earned less.
The same May 2025 source reports a broad annual pay range. The lowest-paid 10% earned less than $42,640, while the highest-paid 10% earned more than $108,510. These are percentile thresholds, so they describe the lower and upper ends of the distribution rather than a typical wage for every electrician.
Earlier BLS releases use different measures and dates. The Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2024 release estimated national electrician employment at 742,580 in May 2024. It reported a national mean hourly wage of $33.47 and a national mean annual wage of $69,630. The mean is an arithmetic average, while the 2025 figures above include a median and percentile thresholds; the measures should not be treated as interchangeable.
For May 2023, the BLS Electricians occupational employment and wage page estimated national employment at 712,580 and the national mean annual wage at $67,810. The 2023, 2024, and 2025 figures come from separate BLS releases with different reference periods and measures. They provide dated benchmarks, not a single like-for-like time series.
How electrician pay is distributed
The May 2023 BLS wage distribution gives a more detailed view of hourly pay. The 10th-percentile hourly wage was $18.49, the 25th-percentile wage was $23.13, and the median was $29.61. At the upper end, the 75th-percentile wage was $38.59 and the 90th-percentile wage was $50.09.
| May 2023 hourly wage point | Electrician wage |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $18.49 |
| 25th percentile | $23.13 |
| Median | $29.61 |
| 75th percentile | $38.59 |
| 90th percentile | $50.09 |
These figures show why a single “average electrician salary” can hide meaningful differences. The middle half of the reported distribution lies between the 25th and 75th percentiles, while the 90th-percentile figure identifies a substantially higher wage level. The figures are May 2023 estimates and should be read alongside the newer May 2025 median and percentile data rather than blended with it.
Industries employing electricians
Building equipment contractors were by far the largest listed industry employer in the May 2023 BLS data, with 522,600 electricians. Other listed employment counts were much smaller: employment services had 24,590 electricians; local government, excluding schools and hospitals, had 15,280; nonresidential building construction had 13,140; and utility system construction had 11,130.
The occupational mix also varied by industry. Electricians made up 4.10% of employment in coal mining and 3.09% of employment in ship and boat building in May 2023. Those percentages describe electricians’ share of each industry’s employment, not the share of electricians working in those industries.
The highest listed industry mean wages in the May 2023 data were not all in the largest employing industries. Electricians in natural gas distribution had a mean annual wage of $116,650. The mean was $100,260 in petroleum and coal products manufacturing and $99,830 among promoters of performing arts, sports, and similar events. These are industry-specific means for the stated period, not national electrician medians.
States with the most electrician jobs
The largest state employment totals in the May 2023 BLS data were concentrated in populous states. California had 72,880 electrician jobs, followed by Texas with 70,580. Florida had 46,690, New York had 40,670, and Ohio had 24,430.
| State | Electrician jobs, May 2023 | Electricians per 1,000 jobs |
|---|---|---|
| California | 72,880 | 4.06 |
| Texas | 70,580 | 5.21 |
| Florida | 46,690 | 4.88 |
| New York | 40,670 | 4.33 |
| Ohio | 24,430 | 4.47 |
The jobs-per-1,000 measure adds context to the raw totals. Texas had fewer total electrician jobs than California, but its occupational concentration was higher: 5.21 electricians per 1,000 jobs compared with California’s 4.06. Florida’s ratio was 4.88, Ohio’s was 4.47, and New York’s was 4.33.
Because the totals and ratios measure different things, a state can rank highly on one without ranking first on the other. Job totals indicate the size of the electrician labor market in the state; jobs per 1,000 indicate how prominent the occupation was within that state’s overall employment.
Job concentration and state pay
Location quotient is another way to compare occupational concentration. A location quotient above 1.00 indicates that electricians represented a larger share of employment in the state than in the comparison benchmark used by the BLS table. In May 2023, Wyoming had a location quotient of 1.85, North Dakota had 1.62, and Utah had 1.44. Nebraska and Idaho each had a location quotient of 1.31.
The highest listed state mean annual wages were reported in the District of Columbia and several western states. The May 2023 BLS figures were $88,860 in the District of Columbia, $88,620 in Washington, $88,280 in Hawaii, $88,040 in Illinois, and $85,330 in Oregon.
These concentration and pay measures answer different career questions. A high location quotient signals that electricians made up a relatively large part of a state’s employment mix; it does not by itself establish the highest wage. Likewise, a high state mean wage does not mean every electrician in that state earned that amount. Both sets of figures are May 2023 means or indices and should be evaluated with the measurement date in mind.
Metropolitan employment and wages
Large metropolitan labor markets accounted for many of the listed electrician jobs in May 2023. The New York-Newark-Jersey City metropolitan area had 39,310 electrician jobs. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land had 19,600, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim had 19,520, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington had 18,730, and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin had 15,860.
The metropolitan areas with the highest listed mean annual wages were not identical to those with the largest job totals. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara had a mean annual wage of $102,590, and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward had a mean of $102,230. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue reported $94,730, Boston-Cambridge-Nashua reported $82,380, and Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale reported $59,450.
| Metropolitan area | Electrician jobs or mean annual wage | Measure |
|---|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City | 39,310 | Jobs |
| Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land | 19,600 | Jobs |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim | 19,520 | Jobs |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara | $102,590 | Mean annual wage |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward | $102,230 | Mean annual wage |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue | $94,730 | Mean annual wage |
| Boston-Cambridge-Nashua | $82,380 | Mean annual wage |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale | $59,450 | Mean annual wage |
The table separates employment totals from wage measures because they cannot be ranked on the same scale. The May 2023 figures indicate that the biggest market by jobs and the highest-paying listed market were different metropolitan areas.
Electrician job outlook
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook projects electrician employment to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035. That would add 75,900 jobs, increasing projected employment from 821,000 in 2025 to 896,900 in 2035. The projection is a forecast, not a count of jobs already created.
The same 2025–2035 outlook projects about 72,700 electrician openings per year on average. Annual openings can include opportunities associated with employment growth as well as positions that become available for other reasons; the supplied BLS figure is an average projection across the decade.
Electricians’ projected 9% growth is above the 6% projected growth for construction trades workers overall and above the 3% projected growth across all occupations. These comparison figures use the same 2025–2035 projection period, so they provide a consistent way to view the occupation’s expected pace relative to broader groups.
The 2025 employment structure also provides a snapshot of where electrician work is found. Electrical contractors and other wiring installation contractors accounted for 66% of electrician employment, while self-employed workers accounted for 7%. Those shares describe the 2025 employment composition and should not be interpreted as forecasts of how the mix will change by 2035.
For career planning, the figures point to several distinct questions: how many jobs exist in a target market, how electrician employment compares with the wider local labor market, what wage measure is being used, and whether a number is historical, current, estimated, or projected. Keeping those distinctions clear makes electrician statistics more useful when comparing training paths, industries, states, and metropolitan areas.