Workers who help celebrate special occasions – like our 140th birthday!

Let’s party as we close out the week of our 140th birthday celebration! Labor market data are our business, so we know there are many workers who help celebrate special events. For instance, parties take a lot of planning, so the services of an event planner often come in handy. Luckily, as of May 2023, there were more than 120,000 meeting, convention, and event planners in the United States.

First up on the party planning list are food, drink, and, of course, sweets. In May 2023, there were over 3.5 million cooks and food preparation workers and 267,840 nonrestaurant food servers, as well as 711,140 bartenders to make sure guests are well fed and hydrated. As for dessert, one of the country’s 220,230 bakers would rise to the occasion and provide cake, cookies, or cupcakes—but why decide? Opt for all three!

Decorations are a must and there were 43,350 floral designers who could help deck out the chosen venue. And what’s a party without entertainment? Choose from among 35,520 musicians and singers. Or select from 7,190 disc jockeys for those that prefer spun, rather than live, tunes.

Getting fancied up for celebrations can be fun so a visit to one of the over 310,000 barbers, hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists, as well as a stop at one of the 144,810 manicurists and pedicurists might be in order.

We’ll want to remember this 140th birthday celebration so if we threw a party we would definitely invite one of the nation’s 53,630 photographers to document the event.

As we wrap up this celebration and look toward the future, we want to thank our data users, survey respondents, and the many others who are a part of BLS history! Take our BLS ERAs Tour to learn more about our first 140 years.

These data are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program and do not include the self-employed.