City market profile
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL OT job market
Compare Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL using BLS occupational therapist wage, employment, density, and concentration data from the May 2025 OEWS release.
Market snapshot
How Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL 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
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL OT market assessment
Why it stands out
- The estimated job base is 2.0 times the typical metro here, which usually gives clinicians more leverage to change employers without relocating.
- A 1.00 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
- Mean pay is $4,530 below the metro midpoint in this dataset, so the market does not compensate for other weaknesses with above-typical wages.
- 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 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL directly with Homosassa Springs, FL: the wage and job-count gap shows whether staying in the same state materially changes your options.
- Use the Florida 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.
BLS OEWS mean annual wage for the metro.
Log-scaled employment count so deeper markets count without letting the largest metros dominate.
Occupational therapist jobs per 1,000 local jobs.
BLS location quotient, which compares the local concentration of OT jobs with the national labor market.
Nearby comparisons
Other Florida 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homosassa Springs, FL Rank #11; 2.56 LQ | 61.4 | $100,530 | 100 |
| North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL Rank #13; 2.06 LQ | 60.6 | $96,990 | 730 |
| Gainesville, FL Rank #27; 2.11 LQ | 56.0 | $92,920 | 340 |
| Port St. Lucie, FL Rank #34; 2.05 LQ | 54.6 | $91,000 | 370 |
| Sebring, FL Rank #68; 2.09 LQ | 49.5 | $94,980 | 60 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Rank #69; 1.10 LQ | 49.4 | $96,110 | 1,660 |
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL is a role-specific choice rather than a broadly strong OT market at #210. Its case is driven by employer depth, not the rank alone. 260 jobs provide more employer choice than the typical metro in this dataset.