Where food prep workers are most in demand
These are the US metro areas with the highest concentration of food prep workers — 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
Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA 3.7×
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2
Lake Charles, LA 3.3×
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3
Monroe, LA 3.3×
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4
Lafayette, LA 3.2×
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5
Hammond, LA 3.2×
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6
Shreveport-Bossier City, LA 3.1×
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7
New Orleans-Metairie, LA 2.8×
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8
Alexandria, LA 2.8×
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9
Baton Rouge, LA 2.5×
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10
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA 2.4×
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11
Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL 2.4×
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12
Punta Gorda, FL 2.3×
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13
College Station-Bryan, TX 2.2×
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14
Homosassa Springs, FL 2.1×
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15
Wildwood-The Villages, FL 2.1×
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16
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC 2.1×
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17
Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL 2.0×
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18
Sebastian-Vero Beach-West Vero Corridor, FL 1.9×
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19
Dothan, AL 1.9×
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20
Fairbanks-College, AK 1.9×
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21
Wichita Falls, TX 1.8×
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22
Las Cruces, NM 1.8×
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23
North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL 1.8×
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24
Auburn-Opelika, AL 1.8×
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25
Hattiesburg, MS 1.7×
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.
- Kahului-Wailuku, HI $22.44/hr
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA $21.91/hr
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA $21.07/hr
- Napa, CA $20.58/hr
- Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA $20.50/hr
- Yakima, WA $20.07/hr
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA $19.71/hr
- Amherst Town-Northampton, MA $19.30/hr
- Walla Walla, WA $19.25/hr
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA $19.12/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.
- Northeast Louisiana nonmetropolitan area 2.6× · $10.72/hr
- Southwest Louisiana nonmetropolitan area 2.3× · $10.46/hr
- Central Louisiana nonmetropolitan area 2.3× · $10.53/hr
- Virgin Islands 2.1× · $14.64/hr
- South Florida nonmetropolitan area 1.9× · $17.42/hr
- Eastern New Mexico nonmetropolitan area 1.8× · $14.91/hr
- Northeast Minnesota nonmetropolitan area 1.8× · $15.75/hr
- Wasatch Front Fringe Utah nonmetropolitan area 1.7× · $17.46/hr
- Coast Oregon nonmetropolitan area 1.7× · $16.82/hr
- Northeast Maine nonmetropolitan area 1.7× · $16.84/hr
- Hawaii / Kauai nonmetropolitan area 1.7× · $20.65/hr
- Southeast Minnesota nonmetropolitan area 1.6× · $16.62/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.