June 19, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Employment of fast food cooks by metropolitan area, May 2006

Nationwide, 0.46 percent of employed people worked as fast food cooks in May 2006, the equivalent of 4.6 fast food cooks per every 1,000 workers.

[Chart data—TXT]

The percentage of workers employed as fast food cooks varied from place to place.

In Jackson, Michigan, there were 19 fast food cooks per 1,000 workers (1.9 percent of workers in that area). Lawton, Oklahoma; Johnson City, Tennessee; and Flagstaff, Arizona, also each had over 1.5 percent of area employment working as fast food cooks. Other areas with high concentrations of fast food cooks tended to be in the South.

These data are from the Occupational Employment Statistics program. To learn more, see "Chart book: Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2006," May 2008, Bulletin 2702.