CareerBuilder & Economic Modeling Specialists report: Which job is most unique to your state?
View the most concentrated occupations for each state in an infographic designed by mental_ floss magazine
PR Newswire
CHICAGO

CHICAGO, Oct. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In the sprawling United States economy, the types of jobs that define entire regions are as diverse as the geographies that shape borders and the people who live within them. Simply put, there are some jobs you can only seem to find in certain places. Using a measurement called location quotient (LQ), CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. reveal the occupation that is most unique to each state through 2013.

"The occupations on this map reflect what makes our national economy so diverse," said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder and co-author of The Talent Equation. "Many of the most concentrated jobs represent well-known, longstanding regional industries, while others may come as a genuine surprise. They are rarely among the largest occupations in a state, but are often the most identifiable."  

See the results in the map below, designed by mental_ floss magazine, or read on for the full dataset and more commentary.

Measuring the "Most Unique" Jobs
Location quotient measures job concentration. For example, one can effectively say that petroleum engineers are 6 times as concentrated in Texas as they are anywhere else in the United States on average.

For this analysis, LQ compares the percentage share of a state's workforce in a given occupation to the percentage share of the nationwide workforce in that occupation. A location quotient of 1.0 means that percent employment for the state matches the nation. Jobs in retail, health care, and local government are typically the most common jobs in each state or metropolitan area, because every local economy needs a significant amount of these workers. These occupations tend to have an LQ near 1.0 in most places.

On the other hand, a high LQ is very useful for identifying what makes a regional job market tick.

"Concentrated occupations are typically tied to an industry that drives a regional economy," said Andrew Crapuchettes, CEO of EMSI.  "Oftentimes, these jobs generate exports and wealth for cities and states and are directly tied to job growth in supporting service sectors."  

As the data in the map and listed below indicates, an occupation need not have a large amount of jobs to earn a high LQ. For instance, there were 3.1 million jobs in Indiana as of 2013, but only 2,686 are boilermakers – making up just .09 percent of the statewide workforce. However, about one out of every 7 boilermaker jobs in the country are located in Indiana.   

The following table represents the information found in the mental_floss map:

Which job is most unique to your state?

State

Occupation

LQ

Jobs 2013

Med. Hourly Earnings

Alabama

Tire Builders

7.75

1,900

$24.55

Alaska

Fishers & Related Fishing Workers

33.56

2,901

$16.85

Arizona

Semiconductor Processors

4.19

1,640

$15.32

Arkansas

Food Processing Workers

6.78

2,303

$10.59

California

Actors

3.19

33,328

$29.23

Colorado

Atmospheric & Space Scientists

7.76

1,510

$49.34

Connecticut

Actuaries

4.16

1,141

$51.22

D.C.

Political Scientists

86.61

3,197

$55.64

Delaware

Chemists

11.65

3,050

$41.45

Florida

Motorboat Operators

5.92

1,315

$14.17

Georgia

Textile Winding, Twisting, & Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, & Tenders

10.52

8,607

$13.03

Hawaii

Tour Guides & Escorts

8.55

1,687

$12.82

Idaho

Forest & Conservation Technicians

14.2

2,273

$15.06

Illinois

Correspondence Clerks

3.93

1,727

$19.88

Indiana

Boilermakers

7.03

2,686

$31.66

Iowa

Soil & Plant Scientists

8.94

1,574

$30.05

Kansas

Umpires, Referees, Other Sports Officials

5.42

1,216

$11.16

Kentucky

Roof Bolters, Mining

14.14

1,184

$25.65

Louisiana

Captains, Mates, & Pilots of Water Vessels

17.2

8,857

$34.88

Maine

Fishers & Related Fishing Workers

27.31

4,070

$17.52

Maryland

Subway & Streetcar Operators

10.41

1,884

$25.43

Massachusetts

Psychiatric Technicians

4.86

8,202

$17.52

Michigan

Model Makers, Metal & Plastic

6.23

1,095

$24.72

Minnesota

Slaughterers & Meat Packers

4.82

7,619

$12.80

Mississippi

Coil Winders, Tapers, & Finishers

11.18

1,340

$18.87

Missouri

Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, & Drying Machine Operators & Tenders

5.58

2,303

$12.37

Montana

Forest & Conservation Technicians

19.41

2,200

$15.05

Nebraska

Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters & Trimmers

9.92

11,453

$13.58

Nevada

Gaming Supervisors

30.91

7,414

$25.40

New Hampshire

Metal Workers & Plastic Workers, All Other

10.05

1,020

$14.40

New Jersey

Biochemists & Biophysicists

4.71

3,628

$50.38

New Mexico

Wellhead Pumpers

13.75

1,358

$22.50

New York

Fashion Designers

5.18

7,164

$32.27

North Carolina

Textile Winding, Twisting, & Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, & Tenders

7.63

6,394

$11.12

North Dakota

Derrick Operators, Oil & Gas

28.21

2,137

$26.65

Ohio

Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal & Plastic

3.53

4,778

$17.21

Oklahoma

Wellhead Pumpers

8.66

1,671

$20.51

Oregon

Logging Workers, all other

21.24

1,400

$16.57

Pennsylvania

Survey Researchers

3.54

2,776

$13.09

Rhode Island

Education, Training, & Library Workers

3.04

1,062

$20.42

South Carolina

Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, & Tenders

10.99

3,220

$13.70

South Dakota

Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers

9.42

14,827

$12.78

Tennessee

Conveyor Operators & Tenders

4.25

3,486

$13.73

Texas

Petroleum Engineers

6.39

21,457

$66.80

Utah

Forest & Conservation Technicians

4.4

1,362

$13.46

Vermont

Highway Maintenance Workers

3.99

1,364

$16.88

Virginia

Legal Support Workers, All Other

5.75

9,039

$43.50

Washington

Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, & Systems Assemblers

14.21

13,535

$23.09

West Virginia

Roof Bolters, Mining

66.29

2,129

$26.84

Wisconsin

Foundry Mold & Coremakers

5.47

1,351

$15.72

Wyoming

Rotary Drill Operators, Oil & Gas

28.0

1,566

$27.05

*Occupations that say "all other" represent a catchall category for jobs in a particular field not individually classified.

About EMSI
EMSI's 2014.2 proprietary Class of Worker dataset, which includes self-employed workers, was used for this report. To ensure relevancy of each occupation, CareerBuilder and EMSI only included occupations with at least 1,000 jobs in the state.

Economic Modeling Specialists Intl., a CareerBuilder company, turns labor market data into useful information that helps organizations understand the connection between economies, people, and work. Using sound economic principles and good data, EMSI builds user-friendly services that help educational institutions, workforce planners, and regional developers build a better workforce and improve the economic conditions in their regions. For more information, visit www.economicmodeling.com.

About CareerBuilder®
CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract great talent. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors and 1 million jobs. CareerBuilder works with the world's top employers, providing everything from labor market intelligence to talent management software and other recruitment solutions. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

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