Occupational concentration · 2025
What Each State Is For
Most state profiles report size, and size mostly restates population. The more useful question is what a state does that the rest of the country does not. A location quotient answers it directly: an occupation’s share of local jobs divided by its share of national jobs. In Texas the answer is oil and gas; in Kansas, aircraft assembly. Every state has an answer, and in almost every state it is a small one: a sliver of the state’s jobs, often paid below the state’s own median wage. The table prints that share and that wage beside each quotient, because the quotient alone would flatter.
The signature occupation of every state
A location quotient is an occupation’s share of a state’s jobs divided by its share of the nation’s. One means the state looks like the country; two means twice the concentration. It is a measure of distinctiveness, not of quality, size or pay. Every bar starts at one, so its length is the distance between the occupation’s share of the state’s jobs and its share of the nation’s. The scale is logarithmic, so equal ratios occupy equal width — without it the District of Columbia’s outlier would compress the other fifty states into nothing. Each row prints its exact figure, how much of the state’s workforce it accounts for, and what it pays against that state’s own median. Ordered by distinctiveness, not by size.
| State | Most concentrated occupation | Concentration vs national | Jobs | Share of state jobs | Median wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCWashington, D.C. | Political Scientists | 3,070 | 0.44% | $152,5301.67× state median | |
| WVWest Virginia | Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining | 1,250 | 0.18% | $74,9501.65× state median | |
| MTMontana | Gambling and Sports Book Writers and Runners | 1,050 | 0.21% | $22,0300.45× state median | |
| NDNorth Dakota | Wellhead Pumpers | 1,540 | 0.36% | $79,8201.52× state median | |
| KSKansas | Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers | 9,710 | 0.68% | $59,8501.25× state median | |
| OROregon | Personal Care and Service Workers, All Other | 22,930 | 1.17% | $41,6000.73× state median | |
| LALouisiana | Extraction Workers, All Other | 1,650 | 0.09% | $48,0701.06× state median | |
| NVNevada | First-Line Supervisors of Gambling Services Workers | 5,590 | 0.36% | $66,6801.40× state median | |
| MAMassachusetts | Biochemists and Biophysicists | 14,890 | 0.41% | $131,6002.07× state median | |
| MSMississippi | Upholsterers | 2,410 | 0.21% | $44,9301.12× state median | |
| AKAlaska | Tour and Travel Guides | 1,660 | 0.51% | $44,2100.72× state median | |
| WYWyoming | Roustabouts, Oil and Gas | 1,180 | 0.42% | $46,6600.93× state median | |
| VTVermont | Community and Social Service Specialists, All Other | 2,850 | 0.94% | $53,1500.94× state median | |
| GAGeorgia | Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 8,830 | 0.18% | $38,9300.81× state median | |
| OKOklahoma | Gambling Surveillance Officers and Gambling Investigators | 1,310 | 0.08% | $36,0000.79× state median | |
| NMNew Mexico | Computer Hardware Engineers | 5,260 | 0.60% | $165,3503.50× state median | |
| IDIdaho | Forest and Conservation Technicians | 2,020 | 0.24% | $53,2901.11× state median | |
| DEDelaware | Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers | 5,430 | 1.12% | $35,5000.68× state median | |
| HIHawaii | Baggage Porters and Bellhops | 1,370 | 0.22% | $42,2400.75× state median | |
| NENebraska | Slaughterers and Meat Packers | 5,480 | 0.53% | $48,9101.00× state median | |
| MDMaryland | Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioners, All Other | 5,840 | 0.21% | $164,6702.77× state median | |
| NJNew Jersey | Therapists, All Other | 7,090 | 0.17% | $100,2501.71× state median | |
| MNMinnesota | Gambling Service Workers, All Other | 2,960 | 0.10% | $31,5400.55× state median | |
| AZArizona | Continuous Mining Machine Operators | 2,850 | 0.09% | $60,8801.22× state median | |
| ILIllinois | Mathematical Science Occupations, All Other | 1,320 | 0.02% | $81,0901.56× state median | |
| TNTennessee | Entertainment Attendants and Related Workers, All Other | 1,230 | 0.04% | $29,8900.63× state median | |
| KYKentucky | Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors | 1,010 | 0.05% | $52,5301.12× state median | |
| IAIowa | Food Processing Workers, All Other | 5,210 | 0.33% | $41,7400.86× state median | |
| WAWashington | Avionics Technicians | 3,400 | 0.10% | $91,3801.45× state median | |
| ARArkansas | Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products | 1,650 | 0.13% | $35,3100.81× state median | |
| SCSouth Carolina | Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 1,500 | 0.07% | $39,7600.86× state median | |
| SDSouth Dakota | Residential Advisors | 1,780 | 0.39% | $38,4200.82× state median | |
| VAVirginia | Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic | 1,080 | 0.03% | $70,2601.26× state median | |
| NCNorth Carolina | Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 2,730 | 0.06% | $36,7000.77× state median | |
| ALAlabama | Logging Equipment Operators | 1,860 | 0.09% | $47,8101.05× state median | |
| TXTexas | Wellhead Pumpers | 10,250 | 0.07% | $75,8601.56× state median | |
| UTUtah | Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials | 1,100 | 0.06% | $31,4300.63× state median | |
| COColorado | Atmospheric and Space Scientists | 1,150 | 0.04% | $104,6701.75× state median | |
| INIndiana | Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators | 2,010 | 0.06% | $45,8200.96× state median | |
| MIMichigan | Tool and Die Makers | 9,420 | 0.21% | $65,5901.33× state median | |
| WIWisconsin | Print Binding and Finishing Workers | 3,560 | 0.12% | $43,4000.86× state median | |
| NYNew York | Word Processors and Typists | 12,340 | 0.13% | $48,4000.81× state median | |
| CACalifornia | Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse | 172,260 | 0.95% | $35,5800.61× state median | |
| CTConnecticut | Actuaries | 1,380 | 0.08% | $166,8002.79× state median | |
| MOMissouri | Cooks, Fast Food | 55,780 | 1.90% | $29,8900.63× state median | |
| MEMaine | Helpers--Electricians | 1,000 | 0.16% | $46,5500.91× state median | |
| NHNew Hampshire | Cooks, Short Order | 2,320 | 0.34% | $32,3300.58× state median | |
| OHOhio | Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Operators | 21,250 | 0.38% | $49,1601.00× state median | |
| FLFlorida | Motorboat Mechanics and Service Technicians | 4,810 | 0.05% | $55,6801.16× state median | |
| PAPennsylvania | Shampooers | 1,000 | 0.02% | $26,1300.53× state median | |
| RIRhode Island | Fundraisers | 1,000 | 0.20% | $75,4101.33× state median |
Most concentrated occupation by state. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025.
How this is built
155,495,750 jobs across 51 jurisdictions and every occupation BLS publishes at state level. The last column divides a state’s signature wage by that state’s own median, not by a national figure, so a ratio under 1.00× says the work a state is most concentrated in pays less than its own typical job. The midpoint of the 51 state median wages is $49,690 — the line each state’s own page is drawn against, and not a target. Blank cells are estimates BLS did not release, usually because too few employers reported. They are shown as gaps rather than filled. Detailed occupations are included only where at least 1,000 people are employed, below which a quotient is survey noise.
A wage marked “$239,200 or more” is censored at source: BLS does not publish medians above that figure, so the number is a floor rather than the wage. A state whose signature wage is censored that way carries no ratio in the table rather than a ratio computed from a floor.
A high quotient is not praise and a low one is not criticism. It measures how unusual a state’s mix of work is, and says nothing about whether that work pays well, is growing, or is worth building more of. Nor does it describe a state’s economy as a whole: as the figures above show, the typical signature occupation is a small share of its state’s employment, so a quotient in the tens can sit on top of a few thousand jobs. That limit was tested rather than asserted — finding 08 on the findings page shows signature quotient barely tracks a state’s whole-workforce distinctiveness once the District of Columbia is set aside. The same quotients are ranked, with what they do not measure, in The Most Distinctive Economies. A work of the U.S. government: no copyright subsists (17 U.S.C. §105). BLS OEWS
What Applied America does with this. Applied America, a nonprofit division of CEFA, carries public priorities to projects that get built. What a state’s workforce already does is part of the record those priorities are drawn from, and part of the test of where a project should land. A state or regional office with a priority starts at Identify Development Needs; a sponsor choosing between states starts at Location & Market Entry.