Pair and compare two distinct earnings industry sectors of your choosing to examine their relative importance and performance across all of Washington’s 39 county economies over 1969-2022. Contrast and assess, for example, the comparative importance of earnings for the Other Services (except Public Administration) sector across the counties of Washington against Accommodation and Food Services, or any other two sectors you elect to select.

Apply the interactive tools included in this module to conduct your own research about how any two industry sectors compare and contrast across the counties of Washington. The analytical tools at your disposal for ranking and sorting the importance and growth of individual industry sectors across counties include: percent of total industry earnings locally, location quotients, percent of State total sector earnings, growth rates and growth rates differenced against overall averages locally and their counterparts nationwide.

The earnings by major industry estimates compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) are by place of work, and are the sum of wage and salary disbursements (payrolls), supplement to wages and salaries, and proprietors’ income.