Occupations in the Coachella Valley – the Top 10 by total employment

CVEP has one overarching goal—diversifying the economy of the Coachella Valley. We are too dependent upon tourism and sales which are extremely vulnerable to economic recessions and downturns. Canadian snowbirds naturally limit their visits when the Canadian dollar weakens against the US Dollar. We are at the mercy of the macroeconomy and currency valuations.

Today’s digest explores the top ten occupations of the Coachella Valley Workforce ranked by total employment. Many of these occupations rely on a robust tourism economy. We will look at total employment, average wages, and the outlook for future hiring in these occupations.

This graph lists the top 10 occupations in the Coachella Valley based on total employment. Location quotients are a statistical ratio that compares the distribution of jobs in a region to the national distribution. For instance, the proportion of personal care aides here is 3 times as concentrated as in the US. Replacement needs represent those currently employed who will leave or find other work in the next five years and must be replaced.

Nearly the entire workforce of many of these occupations needs replacement over the next five years. We will need to replace the entire workforce of fast food and counter workers and waiters and waitresses, not accounting for future demand for additional workers.

Farmwork has a very high location quotient. But these jobs are low paying. Personal care aides, landscaping and groundskeeping, and maids and housekeeping, all have LQ’s twice the national average.

The bright spot in this list is registered nurses. This occupation has high incomes and very low turnover. As in many regions, attracting nurses is a challenge.

For comparison, here are the top 10 occupations in the whole US ranked by total employment.

The following maps show the concentrations of workers in the four occupation sectors represented by the top 10 occupations. Concentrations of the workforce in each sector are mapped by Census tract. Any tracts with less than 1% employment in a sector have been omitted.