Where fast food cooks are most in demand
These are the US metro areas with the highest concentration of fast food cooks — not simply the biggest cities. Ranked using Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data.
How this ranking works
A location quotient compares how common a job is locally against how common it is nationally. 1.0 means exactly the national average. 2.0 means the job is twice as concentrated there as it is across the country as a whole.
We rank by concentration rather than raw headcount deliberately. The largest metros have the most of nearly every job simply because they have the most people — ranking that way would show you the same list of big cities for every occupation. Concentration tells you something different: where this work is disproportionately part of the local economy, which is where your experience carries the most weight.
Metro areas by concentration
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1
Jacksonville, NC 8.5×
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2
Parkersburg-Vienna, WV 7.5×
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3
Fayetteville, NC 7.2×
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4
Goldsboro, NC 6.7×
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5
Beckley, WV 6.6×
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6
Burlington, NC 6.0×
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7
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL 5.8×
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8
Joplin, MO-KS 5.7×
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9
Rocky Mount, NC 5.6×
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10
Columbia, MO 5.6×
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11
Winston-Salem, NC 5.5×
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12
Greenville, NC 5.3×
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13
Springfield, MO 5.3×
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14
Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH 5.3×
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15
Charleston, WV 5.2×
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16
Wilmington, NC 4.9×
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17
Gadsden, AL 4.6×
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18
Anniston-Oxford, AL 4.6×
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19
St. Joseph, MO-KS 4.6×
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20
Greensboro-High Point, NC 4.6×
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21
Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC 4.2×
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22
Pinehurst-Southern Pines, NC 4.1×
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23
Auburn-Opelika, AL 4.1×
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24
Jefferson City, MO 4.0×
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25
Hattiesburg, MS 3.9×
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (2025). Areas with fewer than 100 people in this occupation are excluded — a handful of workers in a small town produces a dramatic ratio off a base too small to mean anything.
Highest paying metro areas
Concentration and pay are not the same thing, and they often point at different places. Cost of living is not adjusted for here — a higher figure in an expensive metro is not automatically a better outcome.
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA $22.70/hr
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA $22.44/hr
- Napa, CA $21.78/hr
- Vallejo, CA $21.37/hr
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA $21.17/hr
- Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA $21.08/hr
- Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA $20.98/hr
- Salinas, CA $20.73/hr
- Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA $20.53/hr
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA $20.45/hr
Outside the metros
BLS also reports rural and small-town regions separately. These often have far higher concentration and less competition for the same work.
- Southwest Missouri nonmetropolitan area 6.5× · $13.75/hr
- Central Missouri nonmetropolitan area 6.5× · $13.75/hr
- Northern West Virginia nonmetropolitan area 6.3× · $11.04/hr
- Southern West Virginia nonmetropolitan area 6.2× · $11.07/hr
- Eastern North Carolina nonmetropolitan area 5.9× · $10.90/hr
- Southeast Missouri nonmetropolitan area 5.6× · $13.75/hr
- Central North Carolina nonmetropolitan area 5.2× · $11.39/hr
- North Missouri nonmetropolitan area 4.6× · $13.75/hr
- East Kentucky nonmetropolitan area 4.3× · $10.39/hr
- Western North Carolina nonmetropolitan area 4.2× · $11.66/hr
- Southeast Alabama nonmetropolitan area 3.6× · $12.95/hr
- Central Kentucky nonmetropolitan area 3.6× · $10.75/hr
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Employment and concentration figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme and describe the whole occupation, not LocalWork listings. They are a guide to where work is concentrated, not a guarantee of current openings.