November 2011 

Occupational Employment 

Statistics (OES) Highlights

Occupational Employment and Wage Patterns 

in Nonmetropolitan Areas 

This OES data highlight uses May 2010 estimates to examine occupational 

employment and wage patterns in nonmetropolitan areas1

. Employment patterns in 

nonmetropolitan areas (NMAs) are different from those in metropolitan statistical 

areas (MSAs) in multiple ways. Some occupations are found mainly in 

nonmetropolitan areas, even though such areas account for just 13 percent of 

employment in the United States. On the other hand, there are several occupations 

that are almost never found in nonmetropolitan areas, and there are some 

occupations that are found in approximately the same proportions in both 

metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.

Tables 1 and 2 list the 10 occupations with the highest location quotients (LQs) for 

nonmetropolitan areas and metropolitan areas. 

Table 1. Occupations with high location quotients in NMAs

Occupation NMA location 

quotient

Loading machine operators, underground mining 6.300

Mine shuttle car operators 5.938

Roof bolters, mining 5.494

Log graders and scalers 5.334

Logging equipment operators 5.289

Fallers 5.097

Continuous mining machine operators 5.009

Forest and conservation technicians 4.313

Slaughterers and meat packers 4.257

Forest fire inspectors and prevention specialists 4.174

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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Table 2. Occupations with high location quotients in MSAs

Occupation MSA location 

quotient

Subway and streetcar operators 1.160

Models 1.146

Flight attendants 1.144

Semiconductor processors 1.136

Actuaries 1.134

Biochemists and biophysicists 1.134

Shampooers 1.134

Prosthodontists 1.134

Sociologists 1.133

Medical scientists, except epidemiologists 1.132

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Location quotients are useful for comparing the composition of jobs in an area 

relative to the average, or for finding areas that have high concentrations of jobs in 

certain occupations. As measured here, a location quotient shows the occupation’s 

share of an area’s employment relative to the national average. For example, a 

location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of 

employment in the area than it does nationally, and a location quotient of 0.5 

indicates the area’s share of employment in the occupation is half the national share. 

Because the aggregated MSAs account for approximately 87 percent of total national 

employment, many of their location quotients are very close to 1. In contrast, NMAs 

have much greater variation in employment structure, thus reflecting the diversity 

and concentration of occupations in nonmetropolitan areas. 

The occupational structure of nonmetropolitan areas exhibits several distinct 

patterns. Occupations that are more highly concentrated in nonmetropolitan areas 

tend to be production; extraction; farming, fishing, and forestry; or transportation 

and material moving occupations. Occupations with lower concentrations in 

nonmetropolitan areas tend to be arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; 

business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and life, physical, 

and social science occupations. There are some exceptions, but even within 

occupational groups found primarily in metropolitan areas, the individual occupations 

prevalent in nonmetropolitan areas are related to agriculture and natural resources. 

For example, the business-related occupations that are more heavily concentrated in 
3

nonmetropolitan areas include buyers and purchasing agents of farm products and 

farm labor contractors, and the science-related occupations in nonmetropolitan areas 

include agricultural and food science technicians, soil and plant scientists, zoologists 

and wildlife biologists, conservation scientists, and foresters. 

Despite the differences between occupations concentrated in metropolitan and 

nonmetropolitan areas, there are some occupations that are found in approximately 

the same proportions in both types of areas. These occupations have location 

quotients close to 1 in both the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas and include 

clergy, pharmacists, and speech-language pathologists. (See table 3.) 

Table 3. Selected occupations with similar location quotients in 

metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas

Occupation

MSA location 

quotient

NMA location 

quotient

Clergy 0.998 1.020

Pharmacists 0.996 1.013

Speech-language pathologists 0.999 1.013

Recreation workers 1.005 1.018

Dishwashers 1.003 1.014

Source: U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics

A closer look at employment concentrations in nonmetropolitan areas reveals certain 

patterns in many individual areas. For example, although NMAs generally have a 

higher share of their employment in occupations related to agriculture, forestry, and 

natural resource extraction,2 most nonmetropolitan areas have high employment 

concentrations in just one or two of these sectors, and other NMAs have high 

location quotients in other sectors. Table 4 lists NMAs that have the highest location 

quotients for the occupations listed in table 2. 
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Table 4. NMAs with the highest location quotients for selected occupations

Area Occupation

Employment NMA 

location 

quotient

Eastern Utah 

Loading machine operators, 

 underground mining 180 154.6

East Kentucky Mine shuttle car operators 580 205.6

East Kentucky Roof bolters, mining 840 164.0

North Idaho Log graders and scalers 110 118.5

Natchitoches, Louisiana Logging equipment operators 580 39.3

Southwest Mississippi Fallers 180 37.3

Other Nevada 

Continuous mining machine 

 operators 1,040 198.4

Northern Mountains Region 

of California 

Forest and conservation 

 technicians 1,500 94.2

Southwest Minnesota Slaughterers and meat packers 3,130 36.9

South Arkansas 

Forest fire inspectors and 

 prevention specialists 50 32.7

Source: U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics

Following the general occupational pattern for NMAs, the Eastern Utah NMA has a 

strong emphasis on mining and oil and gas extraction occupations. In addition to 

underground mining loading machine operators, the occupations with the highest 

location quotients are rotary drill operators, oil and gas; helpers—extraction workers; 

derrick operators, oil and gas; and earth drillers, except oil and gas. Similarly, the 

East Kentucky NMA has a high concentration of jobs in mining. In addition to mine 

shuttle car operators, the occupations with the highest location quotients in this area 

are roof bolters, mining; extraction workers, all other; continuous mining machine 

operators; and helpers—extraction workers. The North Idaho; Natchitoches, 

Louisiana; and Southwest Mississippi areas have high concentrations of workers in 

occupations related to forestry and logging. In addition to log graders and scalers, 

the North Idaho nonmetropolitan area has high concentrations of forest and 

conservation technicians and foresters. 

Another way to find employment patterns in NMAs is to look for occupations that are 

in high concentrations in the majority of NMAs. For example, occupations that are 

frequently found in relatively high concentrations in nonmetropolitan areas include 

correctional officers and jailers, primary and secondary school teachers, counselors 
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and social workers, court reporters, emergency medical technicians, animal control 

workers, and occupations concentrated in local government or the post office. 

A less common pattern is that some states have nonmetropolitan areas that appear 

to be specialized in certain sectors. For instance, nonmetropolitan areas in Arkansas, 

Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, and North Carolina have higher 

concentrations of production employment. Another example is the science-oriented 

nonmetropolitan areas in Alaska, California, Idaho, and Montana. 

Some nonmetropolitan areas are unique because they have relatively high shares of 

employment in occupations that are more commonly found in metropolitan areas. 

For example, areas in Alaska, Maryland, Hawaii, and New Mexico have high 

concentrations of occupations related to science, tourism, or technology. Tables 5, 6, 

and 7 show the diversity of employment in nonmetropolitan areas in Alaska, 

Maryland, and Hawaii. 

Table 5. Selected occupations in Alaska with location quotients greater than 20

Area and occupation Employment

Location 

quotient

Railbelt / Southwest Alaska 

 Gaming and sports book writers and runners 180 24.3

 Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers 3,150 35.0

 Ship engineers 110 21.3

 Zoologists and wildlife biologists 220 22.5

Southeast Alaska 

 Captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels 240 29.9

 Commercial pilots 180 22.6

 Sailors and marine oilers 370 43.4

 Ship engineers 110 43.6

 Tour guides and escorts 290 36.4

 Zoologists and wildlife biologists 230 48.4

Source: U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics

The two NMAs in Alaska have high location quotients in occupations related to 

fishing, tourism, and the great outdoors. Both areas have high concentrations of 

zoologists and wildlife biologists as well as ship engineers. The areas differ in that 

the Southeast NMA has higher concentrations of tour guides and escorts; sailors and 

marine oilers; commercial pilots; and captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels, 

whereas the Railbelt/Southwest NMA has higher concentrations of gaming and sports 

book writers and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers. 
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In Hawaii, many of the occupations with high location quotients are related to travel 

and tourism. Dancers, as well as tour guides and escorts, have the highest LQs, 20.7 

and 19.2, respectively. High location quotients do not necessarily imply high 

employment levels, especially for relatively small areas or occupations with low 

overall employment. For example, although anthropologists and archaeologists have 

an LQ of 6.0 in the nonmetropolitan area of Hawaii, the employment is still only 40. 

Table 6. Selected occupations in Hawaii/Maui/Kauai with location quotients greater 

 than 6

Occupation Employment Location 

quotient

Anthropologists and archeologists 40 6.0

Captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels 210 6.2

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel 

clerks 980 6.8

Transportation attendants, except flight attendants 230 7.7

Baggage porters and bellhops 480 9.1

Transportation security screeners (federal only) 500 10.0

Concierges 290 12.3

Tour guides and escorts 680 19.2

Dancers 280 20.7

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The three NMAs in Maryland present a strong contrast to the areas in Alaska and 

Hawaii. Two of the areas in Maryland are similar: in both the Upper Eastern Shore 

and Garrett County, motorboat mechanics and service technicians is the occupation 

with the highest location quotient. A unique NMA is St. Mary’s County in Maryland, 

where aerospace engineers have the highest LQ (34.8) in the state as well as the 

highest LQ among all NMAs for this occupation. Other occupations with LQs over 30 

are logisticians (32.5) and computer and information research scientists (30.5). The 

rest of the occupations presented in table 7 are engineering and business related, 

with technical writers rounding out the occupations shown. 
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Table 7. Selected occupations in Maryland with location quotients 

 greater than 6

Area and occupation Employment

Location 

quotient

Upper Eastern Shore 

Court reporters 80 8.0

Motorboat mechanics and service technicians 150 16.5

Garrett County, Maryland 

Automotive and watercraft service attendants 40 6.1

Motorboat mechanics and service technicians 40 25.7

St. Mary's County, Maryland 

Aerospace engineers 890 34.8

Computer and information research scientists 250 30.5

Computer hardware engineers 150 7.0

Electrical and electronics engineering technicians 400 8.4

Engineering technicians, except drafters, all other 530 24.6

Engineers, all other 490 10.7

Logisticians 1,110 32.5

Management analysts 1,090 6.2

Operations research analysts 270 13.3

Technical writers 100 7.1

Source: U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics

Wages in nonmetropolitan areas 

Wages in nonmetropolitan areas tend to be lower than the national average. In fact, 

mean wages in all except eight nonmetropolitan areas are below the U.S. hourly 

mean of $21.35. Wages may be lower in most nonmetropolitan areas because 

workers in metropolitan areas have higher wages for the same occupations, because 

employment in nonmetropolitan areas tends to be in lower paying occupations, or 

through a combination of both factors. Nonmetropolitan areas with the highest 

wages are Los Alamos County, New Mexico; and St. Mary’s County, Maryland. (See 

table 8.) Both of these areas have high shares of high-paying science and 

engineering occupations. 
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Table 8. Nonmetropolitan areas with the highest 

 all-occupations mean wages

Area

Hourly mean 

wage

Los Alamos County, NM $36.42 

St. Mary’s County, MD 29.12

Railbelt/Southwest Alaska 23.69

North Central Massachusetts 23.64

Southeast Alaska 22.33

Nantucket Island and Martha’s Vineyard 21.93

Western New Hampshire 21.76

Northwestern Connecticut 21.40

Mother Lode Region of California 21.20

Southwestern Wyoming 21.03 

The aggregate metropolitan and nonmetropolitan location quotients are based on a 

special tabulation of May 2010 OES data performed for the purposes of this 

highlight; location quotients, employment levels, and wages for all occupations and 

individual areas are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_dl.htm/. Complete May 

2010 OES data are available from the OES home page at www.bls.gov/oes. This 

highlight was prepared by John I. Jones. For more information, please contact the 

OES program at www.bls.gov/oes/home.htm#contact. 

Notes 

 

1

The OES program defines 170 nonmetropolitan areas, with each state having between 1 and 

6 (except New Jersey, which has none). They may include micropolitan areas, but do not 

include any portion of a metropolitan statistical area. The largest nonmetropolitan area is in 

Kansas and covers employment of more than 375,000. The smallest nonmetropolitan areas 

are in Rhode Island and parts of Maryland, Massachusetts, and California and have fewer than 

15,000 covered workers each. 

2

The program does not survey farms, but it does cover agriculture support services; logging; 

and federal, state, and local government, which employ workers in farming and forestryrelated occupations.