Have a Blast!

They show up every year as if by magic: tents and roadside stands selling fireworks with names you couldn’t have imagined, from the “Hen Laying Eggs” to the “Zombie Apocalypse.” Traditions like barbecues and parades may be treasured Independence Day traditions in the US, but the annual fireworks displays set the Fourth of July apart.

The American Pyrotechnics Association (APA) estimates that nearly 20,000 fireworks displays occur nationwide, from small towns to big city extravaganzas. That’s an average 400 per state—and that only counts official events. In backyards and empty streets across the country, Americans send rockets with a red glare and bombs bursting in air across the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

But how is all of this possible? What kind of infrastructure supports the fireworks industry, which seems to focus all its efforts on just one day of the year? 

Lightcast labor market data can help provide the answer.

Unsurprisingly, there’s an uptick in job postings around fireworks every year around June and July in the States. This chart shows how many jobs mention “fireworks” as a keyword.

For a job seemingly fraught with potential peril, you’d suspect that employers would want individuals with experience handling bottle rockets and sparklers…but that’s not the case.

Most postings (69%) don’t specify an experience level at all, and 80% are comfortable with 1 year or less experience in this field.

Wait - what??? Are fireworks’ employers crazy? Do they not care if their employees lose their fingers?

If we dig into the nuances of the postings, this pattern makes more sense. 

The top specialized skills related to fireworks are Selling, Merchandising, Marketing, Cash Register, and POS. 

Those are all retail skills—which shows us that most jobs related to fireworks don’t have workers lighting them, but selling them. 

Lightcast job postings reveal the granular details behind America's biggest bang—showing how retail expertise, not pyrotechnic prowess, fuels our Fourth of July festivities. 

When labor market trends illuminate the real-world mechanics of tradition, you get more insight per dollar spent on data. A happy Fourth of July ends with fireworks, and understanding the labor trends that make it possible…starts with Lightcast.