This post profiles America’s largest job markets for Actors (Standard Occupation Code: 27-2011). It is part of a series that profiles the major job markets for content creation-related careers. The goal of this particular series is to help inform students to incorporate considerations of local job 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 Actors. 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 he 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
Note that this table excludes Los Angeles, which is likely the largest acting market in the United States.
| Rank | Metro Area | Total Employment | Jobs per 1k | Location Quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | 3980 | 0.46 | 2.14 |
| 2 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI | 2050 | 0.48 | 2.27 |
| 3 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 1560 | 0.59 | 2.75 |
| 4 | New Orleans-Metairie, LA | 740 | 1.46 | 6.81 |
| 5 | Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 680 | 0.54 | 2.52 |
| 6 | Pittsburgh, PA | 480 | 0.46 | 2.14 |
| 7 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 380 | 0.13 | 0.60 |
| 8 | Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 280 | 0.24 | 1.12 |
| 9 | Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | 260 | 0.25 | 1.18 |
| 10 | Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | 210 | 0.10 | 0.47 |
| 11 | Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO | 180 | 0.12 | 0.56 |
| 12 | Cleveland-Elyria, OH | 170 | 0.17 | 0.82 |
| 12 | Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 170 | 0.06 | 0.28 |
| 14 | Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN | 130 | 0.13 | 0.63 |
| 15 | Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH | 110 | 0.04 | 0.21 |
| 16 | Columbus, OH | 100 | 0.10 | 0.47 |
| 17 | Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC | 90 | 0.12 | 0.57 |
| 17 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 90 | 0.05 | 0.23 |
| 19 | Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ | 80 | 0.23 | 1.06 |
| 19 | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 80 | 0.07 | 0.34 |
| 21 | Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN | 70 | 0.11 | 0.52 |
| 21 | Jacksonville, FL | 70 | 0.10 | 0.45 |
| 23 | Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV | 60 | 0.06 | 0.29 |
| 24 | Oklahoma City, OK | 40 | 0.06 | 0.29 |
| 24 | Kansas City, MO-KS | 40 | 0.04 | 0.18 |
Some observations:
- Again: Note that the table does not include Los Angeles, because data was missing. It is likely the largest acting market in the US
- Outside of Los Angeles, few metro areas appear to offer much in the way in the job markets for actor: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh
- Overall, the acting job market is very small, even in comparatively larger job markets.
