New May 2025 BLS data reveals 25 jobs where median salaries dropped year-over-year. The biggest hit: General Internal Medicine Physicians in West Virginia (-69.1%).
Not every job got a raise in 2025. The May 2025 BLS data reveals 25 occupation-state combinations where median pay actually dropped compared to 2024 — sometimes by double digits.
Where Pay Fell the Most
The biggest drop: General Internal Medicine Physicians in West Virginia, where median pay fell -69.1% — from $234,960 in 2024 to $72,680 in 2025. That's $162,280 less per worker, per year.
Why salaries can fall: Year-over-year drops in BLS data usually reflect a few realities — workforce composition changes (cheaper junior workers replacing higher-paid seniors), industry consolidation, or geographic redistribution within an occupation. They're rarely "everyone in this job took a pay cut" — more often, the mix of workers in that bucket changed.
We compared median annual salary (BLS datatype 13) for every occupation × state pair between May 2024 and May 2025 OEWS releases. Only pairs where both years exceeded $30,000 were included. SOC residual ("all other") buckets were excluded.
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