City market profile
Bellingham, WA OT job market
Compare Bellingham, WA using BLS occupational therapist wage, employment, density, and concentration data from the May 2025 OEWS release.
Metro rank #159$105,090 mean wage100 OT jobs1.03 location quotient
Market snapshot
How Bellingham, WA compares for occupational therapists
The OT Index city score balances pay, role depth, role density, and occupational concentration. The wage and job-market measures stay visible so readers can understand the rank.
Our take
Bellingham, WA OT market assessment
Why it stands out
- Mean pay is $9,060 above the metro midpoint in this dataset. That is a real earnings advantage before any individual offer is considered.
- A 1.03 location quotient means OT work is at least as concentrated locally as it is nationally, supporting the idea that this is an established OT market.
Tradeoffs that matter
- 100 estimated jobs is below the metro midpoint of 130. A thinner market can make specialty searches and employer changes harder.
What to compare next
- Compare Bellingham, WA directly with Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA: the wage and job-count gap shows whether staying in the same state materially changes your options.
- Use the Washington state profile to tell whether this metro is carrying the state or benefiting from a stronger market elsewhere.
- Compare the setting mix behind the job count. A metro dominated by schools or home health may be a poor fit even when total OT employment looks healthy.
Methodology
Why this metro scores where it does
Metro rankings are most useful when the score is read beside the raw measures. A high-wage city can still have a shallow market, while a dense market can still have weaker pay.
Mean annual wage40%
BLS OEWS mean annual wage for the metro.
Employment depth25%
Log-scaled employment count so deeper markets count without letting the largest metros dominate.
Employment density20%
Occupational therapist jobs per 1,000 local jobs.
Job concentration15%
BLS location quotient, which compares the local concentration of OT jobs with the national labor market.
Nearby comparisons
Other Washington metro markets
Compare this metro against nearby labor markets before using a single city score to make a relocation or negotiation decision.
| Metro | Score | Mean wage | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Rank #26; 0.93 LQ | 56.4 | $113,270 | 2,020 |
| Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA Rank #91; 1.21 LQ | 46.6 | $100,980 | 320 |
| Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA Rank #143; 0.98 LQ | 42.2 | $108,570 | 100 |
| Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA Rank #155; 0.90 LQ | 41.4 | $107,830 | 120 |
| Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA Rank #215; 1.05 LQ | 37.5 | $101,500 | 60 |
| Kennewick-Richland, WA Rank #228; 0.75 LQ | 36.9 | $104,760 | 100 |
Bellingham, WA is a workable middle-tier OT market, but not a place the labor data strongly favors. Its case is driven by pay, not the rank alone. 100 jobs make the market thinner than the typical metro, which can limit switching options.