Location Quotients are a measurement of an industry’s employment concentration in a specified geography relative to that industry’s concentration in a larger benchmark region. A location quotient is calculated by dividing the employment of a selected industry in an area by that area’s total employment for all industries. That local result is then divided by the same calculation performed at the larger benchmark region level. A location quotient of 1.0 means that the local area's employment concentration is equal to its concentration in the larger benchmark area, while anything greater than 1.0 means that there is a higher employment concentration or less than 1.0 indicates a lower employment concentration for that industry in the smaller area.
For the tool on this page, all location quotients are relative to employment at the Minnesota statewide level.