The North Carolina General Assembly is currently in session, considering bills on a variety of issues that could shape residents' future.
For this week's Carolina Curious, WFDD's DJ Simmons was wondering: What professions are most common among state legislators?
An analysis shows the three job sectors most members come from are business, law and real estate.
This chart generated by WFDD staff shows the breakdown of NC legislators by job sectors.
Simmons recently spoke with Chris Cooper, a political scientist professor at Western Carolina University, to discuss the implications of these findings.
Interview highlights
On why some occupations are more likely to be represented than others:
"A state like North Carolina, where we pay our state legislators $13,951 a year, we have irregular session lengths. It could be very short or very long, and they don't have a lot of staff.