Occupation Comparison

The Occupation Comparison report lets you compare multiple occupations side-by-side within a specific region. With data related to growth, earnings, industries, and more, this report gives a detailed picture of how various occupations are balanced within a certain economy. 

To begin the report, select at least two occupations to compare, either by typing them in and selecting from the dropdown menu, or by clicking Browse or Groups.  Then select a region of study (census subdivision, census division, CMA, province, or nation) and click Run.

Remember, once you’re in the report you can adjust the data by using the left-side menu.

In this example, we will be looking at data for Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses in the Vancouver CMA. 

Occupation Group Jobs and Earnings Comparison

At the top of the report, you can see the number of jobs and the hourly wages. This chart shows that there were 24,785 jobs for registered nurses in 2019, and that number has grown by just over 600 jobs in 2020. Jobs for licensed practical nurses have grown by only 60 jobs in the last year.

We can also see that there is a relatively large gap in median hourly earnings for these two occupations: $39.99 for registered nurses, and $28.29 for practical nurses. If you’d like to see how these numbers compare nationally, simply change your region in the left-side menu. 

Occupation Group Growth Comparison

The next graph is a more detailed version of job growth. We can see that registered nurse occupations have experienced a 2% growth in jobs; licensed practical nurse jobs have increased by 1%.  

Occupation Group Shift Share Comparison

Here we have the shift share for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses in Vancouver. 

Shift share includes occupation mix effect, national growth effect, expected change and competitive effect. To give you a more concrete number, we also provide job change. As shown by the negative numbers under competitive effect, it appears that both licensed practical nurses and registered nurses are losing ground in Vancouver. 

Occupation Group Location Quotient Comparison

The concentrations of licensed practical nurses and registered nurses in Vancouver seem to be fairly close to the national concentrations, and haven’t shifted much in the last year. In fact, registered nurses had a location quotient of 0.96 in 2019 (meaning that the concentration just below average) and maintained this LQ into 2020, and the LQ of licensed practical nurses remained at 0.77. 

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