An establishment is a single physical location where business is conducted. A firm with multiple locations counts as multiple establishments. "Avg pay" is wages and salaries per employee, including bonuses and tips — for proprietorships, the owner's take is largely outside this number. The location quotient (LQ) of 0.89 means engineering services are 11% under-represented in Iowa's business mix relative to the U.S. average.
Source. BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages — 2024 annual averages, private-ownership only, NAICS 541330. Establishment counts include any firm with at least one paid employee covered by state unemployment insurance.
SMB Density · firm counts, employment, and wages by industry × state · data from BLS QCEW 2024 annual (private ownership, state-level; mostly 6-digit NAICS, 3 specialty-trade industries at 5-digit aggregation) · data.json