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

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Oct 16, 2014, 04:00 ET

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.

Infographic: www.mentalfloss.com/uniquejobs

"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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