This post profiles America’s largest job markets for Photographers (Standard Occupation Code: 27-4021). It is part of a series that profiles the major job markets for content creation-related careers. Click here for an overview of my study- and career-planning advice for students interested in content creation. The goal of this particular series is to help inform students incorporate considerations of local jobs markets when crafting study and career plans. It can be of great benefit to study and live in areas in which there is a market for one’s chosen field.
The table below lists America’s 25 largest metro area job markets for Photographers. It provides information on the total number of people in that occupation, the mean annual wage, the number of jobs per 1000, and the ‘location quotient’. The location quotient is the ratio of the percentage of jobs in that occupation locally to the percentage nationally. A score above one denotes that more jobs in that occupation are present in the local area compared to the national average, while a score below one indicates fewer jobs in the local area relative to the national average. Click here for more details on the data and methods employed to produce this information
| Rank | Metro Area | Total Jobs | Jobs per 1k | Location Quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | 3260 | 0.38 | 1.38 |
| 2 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI | 1390 | 0.33 | 1.20 |
| 3 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 1100 | 0.43 | 1.56 |
| 4 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 1000 | 0.41 | 1.49 |
| 5 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 970 | 0.27 | 0.99 |
| 6 | Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 780 | 0.27 | 0.98 |
| 7 | San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA | 770 | 0.34 | 1.26 |
| 8 | Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | 690 | 0.32 | 1.19 |
| 9 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 650 | 0.22 | 0.81 |
| 10 | Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 640 | 0.55 | 2.00 |
| 11 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 630 | 0.35 | 1.27 |
| 11 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 630 | 0.33 | 1.20 |
| 13 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 560 | 0.21 | 0.77 |
| 14 | Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH | 530 | 0.20 | 0.75 |
| 15 | Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO | 520 | 0.36 | 1.31 |
| 16 | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 480 | 0.37 | 1.37 |
| 17 | Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV | 400 | 0.43 | 1.58 |
| 18 | San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | 380 | 0.38 | 1.40 |
| 18 | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 380 | 0.21 | 0.77 |
| 20 | Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 370 | 0.30 | 1.08 |
| 21 | Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | 340 | 0.33 | 1.22 |
| 22 | Kansas City, MO-KS | 330 | 0.33 | 1.20 |
| 23 | Salt Lake City, UT | 320 | 0.43 | 1.59 |
| 23 | Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI | 320 | 0.41 | 1.51 |
Observation:
- There is not a large abundance of jobs in photography, but the opportunities are distributed fairly evenly geographically. This may be a result of the fact that many photographers sustain themselves selling to retail consumers.
