economy
Management & professional occupations
Why this matters
Management and professional occupations include jobs like managers, teachers, nurses, engineers, accountants, and software developers. This indicator shows the share of local workers in these roles, which usually require more formal education or training and tend to pay higher wages.
This measure is mainly context: it describes the kind of work a community’s residents do. A higher share often points to more office-based and credentialed jobs, while a lower share may reflect an economy built more on service, manufacturing, or hands-on trades, all of which are essential.
Looking at the mix of occupations helps explain local income patterns and which industries are growing.
About the Charlotte region
This explorer covers the 14-county, two-state Charlotte region (11 North Carolina and 3 South Carolina counties). Many of these indicators connect to a defining regional story: a landmark Harvard study ranked Charlotte last, 50th of the 50 largest U.S. metros for economic mobility (a child raised in the poorest fifth had about a 4.4% chance of reaching the top fifth), a finding that launched the region's Leading on Opportunity agenda. Updated 2024 data show Charlotte has since climbed to 38th.
Opportunity here is also unevenly mapped. An affluent “wedge” fanning southeast from uptown holds a large majority of the city's wealth on under a quarter of its land, while a ”crescent” to the north, west, and east carries higher poverty, a legacy of redlining, exclusionary zoning, and highway routing that recurs across the race, income, health, tree-canopy, and school maps in this tool. No single indicator is good or bad on its own; together they describe how the region sorted opportunity.
Companion resources: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer · UNC Charlotte Urban Institute · Opportunity Atlas · Methods & sources
Learn more
- BLS — Standard Occupational Classification (major groups) bls.gov
Federal system that defines occupation categories, including management/professional.
- BLS — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics bls.gov
Data on employment and pay across detailed occupations.
About the data
Calculated from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (2014–2024), at the Census-tract level, with margins of error. ACS 5-year vintages overlap year to year, so the series is a rolling estimate; compare only non-overlapping periods.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.