Median annual wage
$45,210District of ColumbiaCouriers and messengers job market in District of Columbia
Occupation pay
What Couriers and messengers earn in District of Columbia
BLS OEWS occupation-level pay estimates for this role — separate from the industry wage trends used elsewhere in this report.
- Middle 50% of published wages
- $41,190 – $49,030
- U.S. median annual wage
- $39,200
- Reference period
- May 2025
The middle 50% is the 25th-to-75th percentile wage range, not an experience-level band. Suppressed or unavailable BLS values remain unpublished rather than being estimated.
Pay around District of Columbia
How median pay varies by metro area
Published BLS OEWS metro estimates for Couriers and messengers, compared with the District of Columbia median of $45,210.
District of Columbia median$45,210
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV$44,840−0.8% vs. state
Areas are ordered by published median wage for readability, not as an overall job-market ranking. The vertical marker is the District of Columbia median. Some BLS metropolitan areas cross state lines, so a metro estimate can cover workers in more than one state.
Local research
What the data shows for couriers and messengers in District of Columbia
Findings describe the published observation periods shown below. Research published Oct 11, 2026.
This occupation is less concentrated in the state
Couriers and messengers account for 0.38 times their national share of employment in District of Columbia, according to OEWS May 2025. This is the published location quotient. The state estimate is 120 jobs, 0.2% of the national employment estimate for this occupation. It represents 0.17 jobs per thousand jobs in the state's OEWS employment universe. Concentration describes employment share, not current hiring or future growth.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSOEWS employment estimates describe covered wage-and-salary jobs and exclude self-employed workers; location quotients do not measure vacancies or worker demand.
Industry groups are pulling in opposite directions
The overall industry figure masks differing movements among the leading industry groups associated with this occupation in District of Columbia. The groups examined cover 87.7% of its national industry mix. In January to March 2026, year-over-year employment changed +1.1% in Private education and health services and -2.5% in Trade, transportation, and utilities.
January to March 2026 · BLS QCEWPublished median pay is above the U.S. median
A 15.3% difference separates District of Columbia's median annual wage for couriers and messengers from the U.S. median in OEWS May 2025. At $45,210, the state median is above the national figure of $39,200. The estimates describe the middle of each wage distribution, without a living-cost adjustment.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSEmployment and establishment counts moved apart
The establishment measure gives a different direction from the employment measure in District of Columbia in January to March 2026. For the industries that employ this occupation, establishments changed +2.3% year over year and employment changed -1.3%. The figures describe how the two measures diverged, without identifying a reason.
January to March 2026 · BLS QCEWIndustry measures describe the industries associated with this occupation. They are not direct occupation employment, current openings or a state-level Job Market Health score. Findings describe published data and do not establish causes. Methodology
Current market signals
Recent statewide layoff-notice context alongside the published BLS figures below. This signal does not feed the Job Market Health score.
Listed WARN records in District of Columbia
Partial listPartial list. Partial listed-record coverage: DOES posts WARN notices on its annual table when received, but the table does not certify that every notice is listed or how current it is. Rows are dated by the published Notice Date (the day DOES received the notice); effective layoff dates and ranges are kept as published and never used as notice dates. "TBD" and amended worker counts are unknown. No month or District total is treated as complete; missing records are unknown, not zero.
| Month of notice date | Listed notices |
|---|---|
| Feb 2026 | 2 |
| Mar 2026 | 2 |
| Apr 2026 | 3 |
| May 2026 | 1 |
| Jul 2026 | 4 |
| Aug 2026 | 2 |
| Sep 2026 | 3 |
| Listed notices counted | 17 |
Statewide, current-month and three-month totals are unavailable. Months not shown are unknown, not zero. Effective layoff dates are not used as notice dates.
District of Columbia Department of Employment Services
Source last checked . This check does not certify a newly published report.
Indeed job postings · District of Columbia
Recent hiring-demand context · separate from the health score
70.6Postings index · February 1, 2020 = 100Observation: Oct 23, 2026
-29.4%Versus the February 2020 baseline
-0.9%Change over about four weeksSep 25, 2026 to Oct 23, 2026
This is statewide demand across all occupations, not demand for this specific job. Postings are not a count of vacancies or hires, and Indeed does not cover the entire labor market.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab · CC BY 4.0. Seven-day average, seasonally adjusted; publisher refreshes weekly and may revise history. Retrieved Nov 1, 2026 · saved source copy. JobMarketHealth calculates the displayed changes and samples weekly observations for the chart.
-1.3%Industry employmentU.S. +0.5%State data coverage: 89.43%
+2.3%EstablishmentsU.S. +3.4%State data coverage: 89.43%
+6.6%Avg. weekly industry wageU.S. +3.0%State data coverage: 89.43%
27,833Represented establishmentsEstablishments in the industries that employ this occupation, not employers hiring itIndustry mix share 88.8%, separate from the data coverage on the trend cards
Industry employment change over time
Year-over-year change for the industries that employ Couriers and messengers in District of Columbia · percentage change
Year-over-year employment change (%) by reference quarter
Latest published values
- District of Columbia · 2026 Q1-1.3%
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
Every published quarter
BLS does not publish a national quarterly series for this occupation’s industry mix, so only the District of Columbia series is shown. The U.S. figure on the cards above is the latest quarter benchmark.
| Quarter | District of Columbia | State data coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q2 | +0.5% | 100% |
| 2024 Q3 | +0.6% | 100% |
| 2024 Q4 | 0.0% | 98.83% |
| 2025 Q1 | +0.2% | 89.43% |
| 2025 Q2 | 0.0% | 94.42% |
| 2025 Q3 | -0.8% | 94.42% |
| 2025 Q4 | -0.5% | 94.42% |
| 2026 Q1 | -1.3% | 89.43% |
Industry mix behind this view
Which industries are weighted into this view. Not a ranking of employers or of job quality.
| Industry group | Share of occupation employment | Local employment change | Establishments | Avg. weekly wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private education and health services | 38.1% | +1.1% | 7,236 | $1,674 |
| Trade, transportation, and utilities | 33.3% | -2.5% | 2,020 | $1,480 |
| Professional and business services | 16.2% | -4.2% | 18,577 | $3,573 |
| Financial activities | 4.3% | Not published | 3,555 | $5,500 |
| State and local Suppressed by BLS | 3.0% | Suppressed | Suppressed | Suppressed |
| Manufacturing Suppressed by BLS | 1.2% | Suppressed | Suppressed | Suppressed |
The publication date above is the official BLS news release date for this reference quarter, linked to the notice. The values match the snapshot independently checked against BLS sources on September 17, 2026. The publication date identifies the quarterly news release, not the exact revision date. The data period above is the quarter the figures describe.
QCEW describes the industries that employ this occupation, not the occupation itself. It is not a count of job openings and is not part of the 0-100 Job Market Health score.
Evidence record
Derived by JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix. This is occupation-weighted industry context, not direct occupation employment and not a count of current job openings.
- Occupation
- Couriers and messengers
- SOC code
- 43-5021
- State
- District of Columbia
- QCEW release label
- QCEW 2026 Q1
- Data period
- 2026 Q1
- State industry employment, year over year
- -1.3%State data coverage 89.43%
- U.S. benchmark, year over year
- +0.5%
- Difference from U.S. benchmark
- -1.8 percentage pointsPercentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
- Establishments, year over year
- +2.3%State data coverage 89.43%
- Average weekly industry wage, year over year
- +6.6%State data coverage 89.43%
- Industry mix vintage
- EP-2025-2035
- BLS publication date
- Aug 28, 2026
- Source verification
- Verified against the committed source snapshotVerified Sep 17, 2026
- Canonical record URL
- https://jobmarkethealth.com/occupations/couriers-and-messengers/district-of-columbia#evidence-record
- Derived by
- JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix
MethodologyBLS QCEWHow to citeQCEW state context release, 2026 Q1
AI & this occupation
How AI relates to Couriers and messengers work
Across 4 research exposure measures, Couriers and messengers is in the middle technical AI exposure band based on the mean of the available source-specific percentile ranks. Exposure describes how much of the work the studied AI capabilities could technically assist with; it is not a forecast of job loss.
Observed use of Claude for this occupation's tasks is in the middle third of occupations in the Anthropic Economic Index, a dated observed task-exposure benchmark, not conversation share or the share of workers using AI. Its observation window is not recorded in this saved release.
JobMarketHealth has not measured an AI effect on this occupation's employment or wages, and these figures do not enter its scores; there is no clear evidence of displacement in the data shown here.
Exposure measures (kept separate)
- GPTs are GPTs exposure (β, GPT-4 rated): 0.31 of 1, national percentile 48 (middle third)
- Microsoft AI applicability: 0.13 of 1, national percentile 44 (middle third)
- AIOE (Felten, Raj & Seamans): -0.96 (standardized), national percentile 21 (lower third)
- OECD AI Capability Gap (lower gap = higher potential exposure): gap 1.4 of 23, national percentile 81 (higher third)
OECD capability gap by domain
As published by the OECD: the gap between what the occupation demands (0-5) and current AI capability in each domain. A lower gap means AI is closer to the requirement (higher potential exposure); 0 means AI already meets it or the domain is not relevant.
- Language: gap 0.00 (demand 2.10 of 5)
- Social interaction: gap 0.20 (demand 2.20 of 5)
- Problem solving: gap 0.00 (demand 2.00 of 5)
- Creativity: gap 0.00 (demand 0.45 of 5)
- Metacognition & critical thinking: gap 0.00 (demand 2.00 of 5)
- Knowledge, learning & memory: gap 0.00 (demand 2.10 of 5)
- Vision: gap 0.15 (demand 3.15 of 5)
- Manipulation: gap 0.55 (demand 2.55 of 5)
- Robotic intelligence: gap 1.30 (demand 3.30 of 5)
National context: what businesses used generative AI for
From the Census 2025-26 BTOS AI Supplement (all industries; businesses whose employees used generative AI). Census did not measure Couriers and messengers specifically.
- Writing or editing documents, emails, or communications: 85.4%
- Searching for information or technical help: 49.9%
- Interpreting, analyzing, translating, or summarizing documents: 44.6%
- Information processing, paperwork, or filing: 34.7%
District of Columbia context
In the Census BTOS core AI-use question, an estimated 34.1% of District of Columbia employer businesses reported using AI in the two weeks ending 2026-10-04 (U.S.: 24.6%).
Separately, the one-time 2025-26 BTOS AI Supplement (collected 2025-11-17 to 2026-02-08) found 23.0% of District of Columbia businesses using AI at that time, and 24.6% reporting that employees used generative AI for work tasks in the prior six months. It describes how AI was being used then, not a trend.
Using each occupation's exposure band and District of Columbia employment weights (OEWS May 2025), 40.3% of covered jobs are in occupations in the higher-exposure band. This describes the state's occupation mix, not a measured AI effect.
Exposure and observed usage are separate measures and neither equals job loss. Census BTOS figures are business-level surveys and are not occupation-specific. Sources: GPTs are GPTs occupation exposure; Microsoft Working with AI: AI applicability; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE); OECD AI Exposure Measure (AI Capability Gap); Anthropic Economic Index; Census BTOS Core AI Use; Census BTOS AI Supplement 2025-26. These figures do not affect Job Market Health scores. Explore AI & Jobs · How we use AI data.
How to read this page
QCEW measures employment and wages by industry, not by occupation. We weight those industry conditions using the published industry mix for Couriers and messengers. These figures describe the industries that employ Couriers and messengers; they are not direct counts of people working in the occupation or of jobs currently open. This page is not part of the national 0 to 100 Job Market Health score.
Source: BLS QCEW. See the methodology, the national Couriers and messengers report and about the data.
Related occupations
Compare District of Columbia with other statesPublished industry employment, business locations and average weekly industry wages for up to three states, with the national benchmark in percentage points.
Couriers and messengers in other states
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