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Figure 3.1 Irvine jobs by industry, 1980-2016
from Irvine at 50: From a Planned Community to a Growing Job Center
by University of California, Irvine - School of Social Ecology
MFI Report: Irvine at 50: From a Planned Community to a Growing Job Center December 2021
Figure 3.1
While viewing the raw number of jobs in each industry is useful, another way to assess the composition of jobs in Irvine is to compare them to the composition of the region overall. We do this by computing location quotient values. The logic of location quotients is this: first, compute the percentage of all workers in the region working in each industry; second, compute the percentage of workers in Irvine working in each industry; third, compute the ratio of these percentages in Irvine to those in the entire region. Thus, for example, if 5% of the jobs in Irvine are in agriculture and 5% of the jobs in the region are in agriculture, then Irvine’s location quotient for agriculture in that year would be 1.0 (as 5/5 = 1). However, if 7% of Irvine’s jobs are in agriculture, then their location quotient for agriculture in that year would be 1.4 (as 7/5 = 1.4). Or, if just 3% of Irvine’s jobs are in agriculture, then their location quotient for agriculture in that year would be 0.6 (as 3/5 = 0.6). Thus, values greater than one indicate that Irvine has a greater proportion of jobs in this industry, whereas values less than one indicate that Irvine has a smaller proportion of jobs in the industry compared to the region overall.
