Using U.S. BLS location quotient to study job concentration within a given labor market

download (1)Job location quotients are ratios that compare the concentration of a particular job in a defined area to that of a larger area.   For example, job location quotients compare MSA employment  to that of the nation.

For instance, the BLS shows that employment per thousand jobs for JOB 1 is 0.41 in AREA 1.  In the nation as a whole, the employment per thousand for JOB 1 is 0.13.  The job title location quotient in this example is 3.09 = (0.41)/(0.13) .

The location quotient in this example is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates that the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average.