City market profile
Merced, CA OT job market
Compare Merced, CA using BLS occupational therapist wage, employment, density, and concentration data from the May 2025 OEWS release.
Metro rank #295$115,270 mean wage30 OT jobs0.38 location quotient
Market snapshot
How Merced, CA 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
Merced, CA OT market assessment
Why it stands out
- Mean pay is $19,240 above the metro midpoint in this dataset. That is a real earnings advantage before any individual offer is considered.
- 6 other California metros create realistic nearby alternatives if the first offer or setting is not a fit.
Tradeoffs that matter
- 30 estimated jobs is below the metro midpoint of 130. A thinner market can make specialty searches and employer changes harder.
- The 0.38 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 Merced, CA directly with San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA: the wage and job-count gap shows whether staying in the same state materially changes your options.
- Use the California 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 California 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Rank #6; 0.63 LQ | 62.5 | $136,250 | 1,560 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Rank #9; 0.71 LQ | 61.8 | $137,450 | 840 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Rank #14; 0.76 LQ | 60.3 | $118,500 | 4,950 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA Rank #17; 1.01 LQ | 59.8 | $119,390 | 1,620 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Rank #33; 0.72 LQ | 54.7 | $123,560 | 810 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA Rank #36; 0.98 LQ | 54.0 | $131,980 | 100 |
Merced, CA is a role-specific choice rather than a broadly strong OT market at #295. Its case is driven by pay, not the rank alone. 30 jobs make the market thinner than the typical metro, which can limit switching options.