U.S. Map Of The Most Unique Job In Each State Reminds Me I Still Don’t Know What A ‘Boilermaker’ Is

I’m going to be 100% honest with you bros: I’ve always thought that a boilermaker was the ‘beer cocktail’ where you drop a shot of whiskey into your beer and chug. At no point in my life did it ever occur to me that a boilermaker is one who makes boilers. But can you blame me when the most unique job in my home state is ‘athlete’?

The WashingtonPost’s Wonkblog put together that map featuring the most unique job in each state using this criteria:

Using job data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Pew analyzed the overall prevalence of certain professionals nationwide. They then compared the expected concentration relative to a state’s population to the actual concentration, to calculate the most unique job in each state, which are given on the map below.

Back to the boilermakers: why is that the most unique job for an entire state? Are all the boilers in the nation (world?) made in one town in one state? I’m just so confused by this.

Also, I thought machines made tires? How is that the most unique job for all of South Carolina? If anything this map has just left me more confused than ever…

[The Washington Post]