State employment concentration among protective service occupations

Protective service occupations include police officers, detectives, firefighters, fish and game wardens, and law enforcement workers. Every day, these workers protect our lives, property, and communities. Some states have a higher concentration of employment in these occupations than other states. We measure this concentration with the location quotient. A location quotient greater than one means the occupation has a higher share of state employment than the national average.

In May 2014, New Hampshire had the highest location quotient (23.5) for forest fire inspectors and prevention specialists. Mississippi (17.8) and Arkansas (12.0) also had high location quotients for this occupation.

Fish and game wardens had the highest concentration of employment in 9 states in May 2014. Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming all had location quotients at or above 6.0 for fish and game wardens.

Nevada had a location quotient of 8.1 for gaming surveillance officers and gaming investigators in May 2014. The location quotient for this occupation in Oklahoma was 9.5.

Florida, Alaska, and Hawaii had high concentrations of transportation security screeners in May 2014.

These data come from the Occupational Employment Statistics program. To learn more about protective service occupations, visit the occupational employment and wages profile page. The location quotient is the ratio of an occupation’s share of total state employment to the national average employment share.