Recognizing first responders on National First Responders Day

October 28 is National First Responders Day, recognizing workers such as police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and paramedics. Let’s take a look at BLS data for workers who are first on the scene in an emergency or crisis.

Police and sheriff’s patrol officers, with employment of 655,890 in May 2022, was the largest first responder occupation, followed by firefighters (321,450) and EMTs (167,720). Most paramedics (58 percent) and EMTs (70 percent) were employed in the private sector. The remaining first responders were employed mainly in the public sector, primarily in local government. The percentage of public sector employment for these workers ranged from 93 percent of firefighters to 99 percent of both police and sheriff’s patrol officers and first-line supervisors of police and detectives. Most private sector police and police supervisors were campus police in private colleges, universities, and professional schools.

The highest paying first responder occupations were the two types of first-line supervisors: first-line supervisors of police and detectives, with an annual mean wage of $99,410, and first-line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers, who earned $84,810 per year. The lowest paying first responder occupations were EMTs ($40,120) and paramedics ($53,560). All of the occupations were paid more in the public sector than in the private sector, with the differences generally larger for police and firefighter occupations. For example, first-line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers earned $22,670 more and firefighters earned $19,620 more on average in the public sector, while the wage difference for paramedics was $3,680.

These data are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. For more information, see the May 2022 OEWS national data and national data by private sector and public sector ownership. The OEWS data are based on a survey of business establishments and cover full- and part-time employees who are paid a wage or salary. The sum of employment by ownership may differ from total employment in an occupation because of rounding.