Counties with highest concentrations of jobs in poultry and animal slaughtering, June 2020

Every day, workers are busy processing poultry, beef, and other animal products to put meat on the table in homes and restaurants. Across the United States in June 2020, there were 240,255 workers in poultry processing and 143,354 workers in animal, except poultry, slaughtering. Workers in poultry processing earned an average weekly wage of $735 while those in animal, except poultry, slaughtering earned $1,011.

Marshall County, Alabama, had an employment concentration in poultry processing that was 108.72 times the national rate in June 2020. The 7,111 workers in poultry processing within Marshall County earned an average of $639 a week, almost $100 less than the national average. Hall County, Georgia, and Rockingham County, Virginia, were other counties where employment was concentrated at greater than 50 times the national average. In Rockingham County, Virginia, workers earned an average weekly wage of $915, almost $200 more than the national average.

In June 2020, the concentration of employment in animal, except poultry, slaughtering in Sioux County, Iowa, was 36.37 times the national rate. In Sioux County, Iowa, 804 workers in this industry earned an average weekly wage of $1,040, slightly above the national average.

Other counties with employment concentrations in animal, except poultry, slaughtering that were greater than 5 times the national rate were Douglas County, Nebraska; Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; and Delta County, Colorado. In Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the 3,810 workers in this industry earned an average weekly wage of $1,099.

Location quotients are the ratio of an industry’s employment share in an area to its national share. For example, an industry with 6 percent of county employment and 2 percent of national employment would have a location quotient in that county of 6/2 = 3. A location quotient greater than 1 means the industry has a higher share of area employment than the national average.

These data are from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. You can get more industry employment data for the nation, states, counties, and metropolitan areas through the data viewer tool.