Occupations with the highest concentration in each state in May 2016

A location quotient measures how concentrated an occupation is in a geographic area compared with the nation. For example, the location quotient for political scientists in the District of Columbia was 119.2 in May 2016. That means the nation’s capital employed political scientists at 119 times the national rate!

Location quotients provide insight into the jobs that are common in a state or area. For example, the occupation with the highest concentration in New York is fashion designers, with a location quotient of 6.1. In Nevada, gaming service workers (33.6) have the highest location quotient. In Hawaii, dancers (14.2) take the lead. In Texas, petroleum engineers (6.5) rise to the top. Take a look at the map to see what occupation has the highest concentration in your state.

Having a high concentration of an occupation does not necessarily mean employment in that occupation is high. For example, radio operators have the highest location quotient in Minnesota (6.9), but employment is only 120.

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.