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Today's map is a special one. We teamed up with Economic Modeling Specialists Intl., a CareerBuilder company, to determine the "most unique" job in each state using a measurement called location quotient (LQ).

Measuring the “Most Unique” Jobs

Location quotient measures job concentration. 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 key regional occupations or industries. High location quotients indicate that the occupation or industry makes up an important part of the region's economic base, often generating exports and wealth for the local economy. 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.

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 map:

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, & 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, & 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

The Afternoon Map is a semi-regular feature in which we post maps and infographics. Thanks to the good people at CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. for all the data that went into this one, and to Mike Rogalski for making it look pretty.