Have you wondered how concentrated employment in a particular occupation is in the metro region? If so, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)’s Occupational Employment Survey (OES) data is a good source for this information.  The most recent release is for 2017 (the data for 2018 will be released in March or April of 2019).  Available at the national, state, and metro scales, the OES provides data on total employment and wages for over 800 detailed occupations.  In addition, the data includes the location quotient (LQ) for each occupation.  The location quotient is the ratio of the proportion of workers employed in an occupation in a given area to the proportion employed in that occupation nationally. The LQ as such measures how concentrated a particular occupation is in that given area.  For example, the LQ for Film and Video Editors in the Atlanta Metro area is 2.3, meaning that our region employs workers in this occupation at 2.3 times the national rate.

To help you easily explore this data, we have created the interactive chart below.  Simply select a major occupational category from the drop down menu and then hover over the bars to see the location quotient, total employment, and median annual income for each occupation in that category.