Top 10 Most Popular Professions in Buffalo And How Much They Pay

You might be surprised by the most popular jobs in Buffalo and how much they pay.  Buffalo and Niagara Falls are often referred to as "blue-collar cities.'  Buffalo actually topped the list of "Best Cities for Blue Collar Workers."

Blue-collar workers are defined by Investopedia as,

Blue-collar worker refers to workers who engage in hard manual labor, typically agriculture, manufacturing, construction, mining, or maintenance. The environment may be outdoors or require interaction with heavy machinery or animals. The blue-collar worker may be skilled or unskilled.

While Buffalo and Niagara Falls definitely have their roots in blue-collar work, according to the most recent labor data, hard manual labor jobs are not the most popular types of professions.

Here are the top 10 most popular jobs in Buffalo metro (as a percentage of total workforce) and the average hourly wage:

10. Management 4.1% - $59.76
9. Healthcare support 4.8% - $15.62
8. Business and financial operations 5.6% - $35.60
7. Production 6.5% - $21.36
6. Healthcare practitioners and technical 7.1% - $39.40
5. Educational instruction and library 7.3% - $28.97
4. Transportation and material moving 7.5% - $18.40
3. Food preparation and serving related 8.2% - $14.85
2. Sales and related 9.3% - $20.88
1. Office and administrative support 15.7% - $20.58

Here Are the Top 10 Biggest Employers in Buffalo [List]

These 10 companies employ many people in Buffalo and around Western New York. All of them are familiar names, but you might be surprised that some of them have such large workforces here. When it comes to the top type of employment in the city, a majority of people are employed by the private sector (as of 2020):

Private Employee 72,879
Government Employee 18,605
Self-Employed 5,917
Non-Profit Employee 15,905

You can click on each of the companies to see their current job openings.

The top 10 largest employers in Buffalo, as of 2020, are:

-Erie County Medical Center
-Wegmans
-Geico
-Roswell Park
-Catholic Health
-M&T Bank
-University at Buffalo
-Tops Markets
-Seneca Gaming
-Erie County

Top employer data provided by the City of Buffalo Office of the Comptroller

Top professions data provided by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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