City market profile
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA OT job market
Compare Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA using BLS occupational therapist wage, employment, density, and concentration data from the May 2025 OEWS release.
Metro rank #265$87,030 mean wage340 OT jobs0.80 location quotient
Market snapshot
How Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA 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
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA OT market assessment
Why it stands out
- The estimated job base is 2.6 times the typical metro here, which usually gives clinicians more leverage to change employers without relocating.
- 6 other Iowa metros create realistic nearby alternatives if the first offer or setting is not a fit.
Tradeoffs that matter
- Mean pay is $9,000 below the metro midpoint in this dataset, so the market does not compensate for other weaknesses with above-typical wages.
- The 0.80 location quotient shows OT is less concentrated here than in the national workforce, which weakens the case that this is an OT-centered labor market.
- OT jobs per 1,000 workers also fall below the metro midpoint, reinforcing that local opportunity is not especially dense.
What to compare next
- Compare Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA directly with Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL: the wage and job-count gap shows whether staying in the same state materially changes your options.
- Use the Iowa 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 Iowa 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Rank #238; 0.90 LQ | 36.0 | $94,360 | 170 |
| Iowa City, IA Rank #270; 1.05 LQ | 33.4 | $89,330 | 100 |
| Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Rank #297; 0.86 LQ | 31.5 | $92,850 | 80 |
| Cedar Rapids, IA Rank #304; 0.73 LQ | 30.5 | $91,920 | 110 |
| Sioux City, IA-NE-SD Rank #345; 0.69 LQ | 25.7 | $90,240 | 50 |
| Dubuque, IA Rank #354; 0.57 LQ | 23.3 | $93,160 | 30 |
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA is a role-specific choice rather than a broadly strong OT market at #265. Its case is driven by employer depth, not the rank alone. 340 jobs provide more employer choice than the typical metro in this dataset.