Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Street
The Street
Dan Weil

Which Are the Most Popular Jobs in the Various States?

Are you trying to figure out in which state and in which field to find a job?

One thing that may help is learning what are the most common jobs in various states, as there are likely to be openings in those fields and states.

A new study from online bank Tangerine.ca lists which jobs in each state are the most disproportionately common compared with the rest of the country. Tangerine utilized data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The List

The survey measures how many people per 100,000 have jobs in a specific field. Then it compares that number to the national average. Here are the states that have the highest multiples of the national average.

1. West Virginia’s roof bolters and mining workers total 115 per 100,000 people, or 87 times the national average.

2. Hawaii’s motorboat operators total 63 per 100,000 people, 32 times the national average.

3. Oregon’s logging workers total 64 per 100,000 people, or 29 times the national average.

4. North Dakota’s wellhead pumpers total 303 per 100,000 people, or 27 times the national average.

5. Nevada’s continuous mining machine operators total 274 per 100,000 people, or 26 times the national average.

6. Virginia’s marine engineers and naval architects total 45 per 100,000 people, or 26 times the national average.

7. South Dakota’s forest and conservation workers total 106 per 100,000 people, or 24 times the national average.

8. Louisiana’s entertainers and performers total 139 per 100,000 people, or 24 times the national average.

9. Alaska’s mining and geological engineers total 119 per 100,000 people, or 23 times the national average.

10. Wyoming’s roof bolters and mining workers total 30 per 100,000 people, or 23 times the national average.

Flavor of the Market

If you don’t have skills in any of these areas or don’t want to live in any of these states, you obviously want to stick to your own game plan on job hunting. And of course, even if you do have skills in these areas and like the states, there’s no guarantee you’ll get a job there.

But the list gives you a little flavor of the employment market.

Speaking of jobs, nonfarm payrolls soared 528,000 in July, and the unemployment rate tied a 50-year low of 3.5%.

"Despite the two straight quarters of contraction in GDP in the first half of the year, these robust job market numbers strongly argue against recession talk," Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, said in a statement.

The economy shrank 1.6% annualized in the first quarter and 0.9% in the second. 

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.