SAN DIEGO, August 26, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- As Labor Day approaches, Claritas, the nation's leading market research firm and demographic data provider, decided to put in a little overtime and peer into the depths of its employment data to see what's what in the labor force.
Looking at the 318 metropolitan areas (MA) on a per capita basis for total employment of the population aged 18+, the Claritas study found that:
* The Elkhart-Goshen, Ind. MA was on top with 109 percent of its
population aged 18+ employed.
* The Jacksonville, N.C. MA was last at 39 percent.
* The Midwest dominated with nine MA's in the top 20, including
Wisconsin with five, two of which were in the top 10:
-- Green Bay at number seven with 100.3 percent
-- Madison at number nine with 99 percent
-- The other three were La Crosse at number 11 with 95 percent and
Wausau and Eau Claire at number 19 and 20 with 91.7 and 91.9
percent respectively.
* Iowa had two, both in the top ten:
-- Des Moines was number two at 105 percent. It was also the
largest MA in the top 20.
-- Dubuque was number eight with 99.9 percent
* The Dakotas had three MA's in the top 20:
-- Number five Rapid City, S.D. at 101 percent
-- Number 10 Sioux Falls, S.D. at 98.9 percent
-- Bismarck, N.D. was number 14 with 94.3 percent
* Virginia was the only other state with multiple MA's in the top 20:
-- Charlottesville at number 15 with 94.2 percent
-- Roanoke at number 16 with 94 percent
Claritas also looked at how many people are employed in certain professions, such as legal and health. But, because the numbers are based on total population, and not per capita, the larger MA's all ranked highest, so the study looked at the bottom MA's.
For example, the Corvallis, Ore. MA is the place to be if you don't want to run into too many lawyers or legal types. It ranked last with just 146 people employed in legal services there out of a total employment population of 37,277, which figures to less than one percent.
As for health services, the Casper, Wyo. MA had the least number of total health professionals with 3,342, or 8 percent of its workforce. By comparison, the number one MA in this category, New York, was just slightly higher at nearly 10 percent.
About Claritas
Based in San Diego, Calif., Claritas Inc. is regarded as the premier worldwide provider of precision marketing solutions, developed, in part, through intricate customer segmentation systems and other such marketing tools. Claritas is a division of VNU Marketing Information (MI), an established leader in providing a wide variety of industries with innovative precision-marketing solutions including geo-demographic information and qualitative audience research. VNU MI is a part of VNU, which also includes ACNielsen, Nielsen Media Research, Spectra Marketing Systems, Scarborough Research, VNU Business Publications USA, VNU eMedia, and VNU Expositions. To learn more about Claritas and VNU products and services visit their web sites at www.claritas.com and www.VNU.com.
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