The San Francisco Bay Area is a notoriously great place to seek employment, and available statistical data seems to back this up – the average annual salary for 2020 was $75,890, which is almost 42 percent higher than the national average. Furthermore, the unemployment rate has dropped considerably, from 6.1 percent in June 2021 to 3.8 percent in November 2021, well below the national rate of 6.4 percent. In a recent study of over 180 U.S. cities, WalletHub has ranked San Francisco number three in top cities to find a job in 2022, behind only Columbia and Salt Lake City. With a job growth of 16.1 percent in the past ten years, and a whopping projected growth of 39.1 percent in the future, San Francisco is bound to maintain its attractiveness for employers and employees alike.
If you are considering a move to San Francisco and are interested in employment opportunities, you are probably wondering about the most common jobs in the area. With the help of experts from job aggregator Job, we have compiled this comprehensive list of the most popular jobs in the Bay Area, and what to expect from each occupation:
- Restaurants
Described as “Food Preparation and Serving Related” by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, this category refers mostly to workers in the restaurant F – dishwashers, waiters and waitresses, hosts and hostesses, bartenders, cooks, and chefs.
Although the percent of total employment in San Francisco for this category is at 7.5 (lower than the national average), the mean hourly wage is $18.43, which is 39 percent above the national mean wage.
It seems that even though these jobs are less popular than the others on this list, they are still in the top five occupations for San Francisco, and better paid than in most parts of the country.
- Retail
The “Sales and Related” category, as described by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which mostly includes jobs in retail, amounts for 8.1 percent of the total employment in the San Francisco metropolitan area. Same as with the previous category, this is lower than the national average of 9.4 percent. But once more, hourly wages seem to be way ahead, averaging $30.21, as opposed to $22.00 for the whole country.
The most popular jobs in this category include retail salespersons, sales agents, sales representatives, cashiers, telemarketers, real estate brokers and agents, and first-line supervisors of retail workers.
- Business and Financial Operations
This broad category includes a whole array of jobs – purchasing agents, insurance appraisers, cost estimators, compliance officers, HR specialists, event planners, marketing specialists, training and development specialists, project management specialists, business operations specialists, accountants, and auditors, budget and credit analysts, loan officers, tax-collectors, and financial analysts.
Representing 8.20 percent of the total employment in San Francisco, Business and Financial Operations are close in popularity to Retail. However, with the average hourly wage at $48.53, salaries are nearly double the ones in Retail, and a whopping 25 percent above the national mean for the same category.
- Management
Over 9 percent of employees in the San Francisco metropolitan area work in Management, which is almost twice the national average. This category spans nearly all sectors of the economy – basically, management is involved almost everywhere, to a certain degree or another. The Bureau of Labor Statistics gives us the following Management occupations: chief executives, general and operations managers, legislators, advertising and promotions managers, marketing and sales managers, PR managers, IT managers, financial managers, purchasing managers, HR managers, construction managers, education administrators, food service managers, lodging managers, medical managers, real estate managers, entertainment and recreation managers.
The popularity of this occupational category is hardly surprising – after all, becoming a top manager is arguably one of the ultimate goals for any career path or strategy. Plus, the challenges and responsibilities of a management position also bring considerable financial benefits. This is, by far, the best-paid category on the list, with an average hourly wage of $80.68. Furthermore, it looks like managers in the San Francisco metropolitan area get paid better by 33 percent than the national average.
- Office and Administrative Support
According to official statistics, this is the most popular job category in San Francisco, accounting for 11.5 percent of the total employment in the whole metropolitan area. It includes all support roles, such as clerks, operators, customer service representatives, assistants, interviewers, secretaries, dispatchers, typists, proofreaders, copiers, and couriers. It can be said that these jobs form the backbone of most sectors of the economy. Furthermore, the entry threshold for these jobs is usually lower than for the previous two categories, which might explain their popularity and spread – on average, there are fewer requirements with regard to education and experience. On the flip side, the pay is much lower as well – on average, an employee with this type of occupation in San Francisco will receive $26.76 per hour.
