City market profile
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA OT job market
Compare San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA using BLS occupational therapist wage, employment, density, and concentration data from the May 2025 OEWS release.
Metro rank #17$119,390 mean wage1,620 OT jobs1.01 location quotient
Market snapshot
How San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, 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
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA OT market assessment
Why it stands out
- Mean pay is $23,360 above the metro midpoint in this dataset. That is a real earnings advantage before any individual offer is considered.
- The estimated job base is 12.5 times the typical metro here, which usually gives clinicians more leverage to change employers without relocating.
- A 1.01 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.
What to compare next
- Compare San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, 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 |
| 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 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Rank #45; 0.62 LQ | 52.0 | $118,480 | 1,110 |
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA is a genuine OT-market shortlist option at #17. Its case is driven by pay and employer depth, not the rank alone. 1,620 jobs provide more employer choice than the typical metro in this dataset.