Rating

Regional Science & Research Job Market

Scale56-100

Higher values are better.

About This Ranking

Goal

Highlight places whose surrounding labor market has stronger employment depth, occupational specialization, and occupation-standardized pay for Science & Research work.

Sources

Data behind the rating

3 sources

May 2025 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

May 2025 estimates; released May 15, 2026

Data: Employer-side detailed-occupation employment, sampling precision, and nominal mean wages for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan reporting areas, paired with national occupation controls.
What it tells us: Measures regional wage-and-salary job depth, occupational specialization, and occupation-standardized pay; it does not measure current openings or hiring probability.

BLS May 2025 Area Definitions

May 2025 definitions

Data: County assignments for the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan OEWS reporting areas used as the shared regional unit for both score families.
What it tells us: Connects a place to regional workplace evidence. A regional score does not establish that jobs or employers are inside the municipal boundary.

Census LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES8)

Newest available WAC file by state: 2016-2023

Data: Workplace job counts at Census-block resolution, aggregated to a small grid and used only for a mild within-market access deduction.
What it tells us: Approximates how close a named place is to the relevant job concentrations in its assigned labor market; it is not a route-based commute-time estimate.

Top 10 Locations

Ranked by Regional Science & Research Job Market.

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