Do brake booster replacement problems track quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment across states?
Across U.S. states, NHTSA owner complaints about brake booster replacement run higher where quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment is higher, after adjusting for the makes sold in each state. This is an association across states, not proof that quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment causes this repair.
State reports of this repair against quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment, one dot per stateEach dot is a state: how much more (or less) than expected this repair is reported there, adjusted for the makes sold in the state, against its quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment
How to read it: Each dot is a state. Further right means more quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment; higher up means more complaints for this repair than expected (1.0 is average). If the dots climb to the right, reports of this repair rise with quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment.
What it shows: States with more quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment tend to sit higher on the chart across 30 states: a pattern in the data, not proof of cause.
Data: Census LEHD Quarterly Workforce Indicators 2024, NAICS 8111, joined to NHTSA owner complaints, downloaded 2026-10-06 · 30 states. Chart: CalcScrape · calcscrape.com
The 10 states with the most quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment (Colorado, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, Texas, Florida, New Mexico): reports of this repair run 16% above what the makes sold there would predict, and 7 of 10 are above expected. The 10 with the least (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut): 2% below, and 4 of 10 are above expected.
Exceptions: Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama are among the highest in quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment but report below expected; Minnesota (22% above expected) and Maryland (37% above expected) are among the lowest but above expected.
Split the states into thirds: the third with the least quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment runs 2% below what the makes sold there would predict, the middle third 7% above, and the third with the most 16% above. It steps up steadily.
For quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment, after allowing for the 1562 comparisons we ran, luck alone would produce a pattern this strong about 1 time in 6. Take out any single state and the quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment pattern still holds.
Weak spot: compare only states with similar share of households with no vehicle and the pattern keeps about 11% of its strength, so part of it may come from share of households with no vehicle instead of quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment.
For quarterly job separations as a share of auto repair shop employment, of the 5 exception states, 3 read the same way for the other parts of the system (so that is the system there, not this repair) and 2 are specific to this repair.
Where shops lose and replace workers faster, fewer experienced technicians are available, which changes how repairs are diagnosed and redone.