Occupation Overview

The Occupation Overview report in Analyst gives you a broad picture of a specific occupation in a specific region. With data on job postings, compensation, demographics, and more, this report can help colleges and universities to drive focus on programs that produce students prepared for quality, high-paying occupations in the region. 

To begin the report, first select an occupation. For this example we will be using accountants and auditors. Then type in your region of choice, either by zip code, county, MSA, state, or nation. Then click Run. In this walk-through, we’ll be using the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land MSA below. (Note that within the report, you can change the occupation, region, and timeframe whenever you like.)

At the top of the report, you can click Show Occupation Details to see a description of the occupation as well as examples of job titles and related occupations. 

 

Executive Summary

From the graphs below, you can see that the number of accountants and auditors in Houston (34,345) is above the national average for an area this size (26,769). Additionally, these jobs are being paid around $6K more than the national median compensation, which is likely due in part to the high job posting demand (seen on the far right).

 

Note that below these graphs is a Jump to Occupation Table button that you can use to see additional data about this occupation, such as location quotient and job change. 

 

Jobs

This section charts the yearly number of jobs (within the accounting and auditing occupation) in black, with the national average tracked in blue. We can see here that jobs in Houston remain steadily higher than national jobs, and the gap between the two is projected to widen over the next 10 years. 

Beneath the chart you can see the number of jobs for the start and end years of your selected timeframe, as well as the rate of change between those years. If you’d like to see data for additional regions, use the search bar below or load a group.

 

You can also click Jump to Regional Comparison by Occupation, which will provide industry data, location quotient, shift share, and other information relating to your selected occupations. 

 

Regional Breakdown

This simple map shows the counties included in the Houston MSA and the number of accounting and auditing jobs recorded in each county. Harris County, at 27.8K jobs, has the highest concentration by far, with Montgomery County following up with 2.5K jobs. 

 

Industry Sectors: 

The chart below highlights the top industries employing accounting and auditing occupations. In 2019, the accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services industry employed just over 27% of these occupations. Just over half of accounting/auditing occupations are employed at a smaller percentage across other industries in the area. 

Click Jump to Inverse Staffing Patterns to see these industries broken down further by NAICS code.

 

 

Compensation:  

Below you can see the compensation for your selected occupation and the nation, as well as the compensation adjusted for cost of living in your region. Keep in mind that you can choose to see compensation data by hourly wage or by annual wage. 

By hovering over each data point on the graph, we see that the median hourly wage for accountants and auditors in Houston is about $3 per hour more than similar workers across the nation.

 

 

Job Posting Activity

Job posting data is a key player in understanding an occupation’s supply and demand within a specific region. Below we can see that between 2019 and 2020, there were over 17K unique postings for accountants/auditors in the Houston area. This means that while there might have been a higher number of total postings, 17K of them were isolated to a single occupation. Additionally, 2.7K employers advertised jobs for accountants/auditors during this time, and those postings remained open for around 37 days before they were removed. 

The chart above shows monthly posting activity for the last three years in blue, with the estimated number of hires per month shown in black. On average, there were over 2,000 more postings than hires, which suggests that the supply of accountants and auditors is lower than what is needed in the area. 

The next section lists the companies with the highest number of unique postings for our selected occupation, and the related job titles that frequently appear in such postings. 

 

Demographics

This section is built to help you understand how many people will be retiring soon (the working population that is above 55), how racially diverse your region is (based on the percentage of minorities), and what the gender diversity in your region looks like. To provide context, each data point is compared to areas of the same size across the nation. 

In this case we see that the population nearing retirement is about average in Houston, as is gender diversity. But Houston’s racial diversity is well above the national average. As stated in the description beneath the chart, the average for an area this size is 10.6K, while Houston has 15.7K. 

 

Occupation Age Breakdown

For the pie chart below, you can choose to see data concerning age, race/ethnicity, gender, or educational attainment. In this example, the majority of accountants and auditors in Houston are between the ages of 25 and 34, though there are almost as many workers ages 35-44. 

 

Occupational Programs

Colleges and universities often contribute to the success of a regional economy by implementing programs that prepare students for specific regional occupations. In 2018, 1.5K students completed programs that cater to accounting/auditing jobs, and in that same year there were 3.5K job openings. We can also see that Accounting was by far the more popular program with nearly 1,500 completions, while Accounting and Business/Management had only 17. 

 

Top Schools

Finally, this section lists the institutions in the Houston area with the most completions in 2018. The University of Houston had the most at 539 completions, while its second campus location in downtown Houston came in next with 250 (for a total of 789 completions).  

If you have questions, please contact our customer service team by using the Submit a Question feature on the right hand side. We’d love to learn more about your work and see how we can help!