Occupations with a high concentration in each state in May 2019

A location quotient measures how concentrated an occupation is in a geographic area compared with the nation. For example, the location quotient for zoologists and wildlife biologists in Alaska was 17.9 in May 2019. That means zoologists and wildlife biologists were employed in Alaska at 18 times the national rate!

In May 2019, there were four states in which logging workers, all other, was the occupation with the highest location quotient: Oregon (24.9), Arkansas (18.2), Idaho (10.8), and Washington (7.1). In Vermont, bicycle repairers had the highest concentration of employment, at 7 times the national rate. Animal breeders had the highest location quotient in Wisconsin, at 8.2.

Having a high concentration of an occupation does not necessarily mean employment in that occupation is high. In May 2019, commercial divers had the highest location quotient in New Hampshire (6.0), but employment was low (90).

These data are from the Occupational Employment Statistics program. The location quotient is the ratio of an occupation’s share of employment in an area to that occupations employment share in the United States. For example, an occupation that makes up 10 percent of employment in a state compared with 2 percent of U.S. employment would have a location quotient of 5 for the state. A location quotient of 1 means the occupation has the same share of state employment as the national average.