Employment & Wages (By Metro)

Employment & Wages — By Metro

BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, summed across all ~1,029 industry codes on file -- ranked by average weekly wage, not raw employment, since raw employment mostly just tracks county size. One quarter (2025) on file, presented as a single snapshot, not yet a trend.

Ranked by average weekly wage, not total employment -- total employment mostly just tracks how big a place is, which isn't news. A small county at the top isn't a math artifact: it's often one dominant, well-paying employer or industry setting the whole county's average, which is a real thing about that place, not noise to filter out. One quarter of BLS data (2025) is on file, so this is a snapshot, not a trend yet.

95 metros ranked, highest average weekly wage first

#	Metro	Avg Weekly Wage	Employment	Establishments	Counties
1	Silicon Valley	$2,841	65,972,387	6,485,385	13
2	Seattle	$2,372	30,327,041	2,005,390	3
3	New England	$2,334	36,913,628	2,682,949	5
4	New York City	$2,283	142,458,494	10,803,689	22
5	Boulder	$2,066	2,801,548	303,182	1
6	the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia)	$2,054	44,020,439	3,482,053	22
7	Austin	$1,902	18,233,324	1,222,985	5
8	Denver	$1,886	24,044,940	2,121,015	10
9	Dallas	$1,820	42,332,221	2,413,222	7
10	Houston	$1,771	48,789,622	2,809,237	10
11	Greater Chicago	$1,732	66,389,183	4,040,326	13
12	Greater San Diego	$1,721	24,022,479	2,227,863	1
13	Greater Los Angeles	$1,712	97,987,086	12,057,698	2
14	the Twin Cities	$1,678	27,300,235	1,659,770	13
15	Greater Atlanta	$1,659	41,304,261	3,735,907	29
16	Greater Miami / South Florida	$1,639	44,474,832	4,407,966	3
17	New England (NH · VT · ME · RI · CT)	$1,627	47,742,583	5,107,796	54
18	the Research Triangle	$1,623	16,469,712	1,345,588	10
19	Philadelphia	$1,613	40,935,505	2,918,257	11
20	Nashville	$1,577	15,437,490	1,149,359	14
21	Madison, WI	$1,564	4,494,418	282,040	1
22	Des Moines	$1,552	4,999,362	400,505	5
23	Detroit	$1,534	27,904,925	1,803,208	6
24	Pittsburgh	$1,492	15,833,014	1,063,982	8
25	Portland — the Silicon Forest	$1,484	2,444,483	257,235	2
26	Indianapolis	$1,469	15,159,974	940,260	11
27	Tampa Bay	$1,466	22,209,772	1,903,896	4
28	Greater Columbus	$1,461	16,117,196	967,740	10
29	Cincinnati	$1,447	14,510,130	1,019,555	14
30	Oregon	$1,436	24,749,597	2,438,012	34
31	Kansas City	$1,436	14,700,668	1,173,960	14
32	Alaska	$1,432	3,932,486	346,955	30
33	Milwaukee	$1,431	10,823,643	780,350	4
34	the Sun Belt — Arizona	$1,430	45,887,045	3,190,429	15
35	Greater Cleveland	$1,426	14,942,173	1,009,497	6
36	Fort Worth	$1,418	16,498,370	952,828	4
37	Greater St. Louis	$1,417	18,440,906	1,579,427	15
38	Utah (Silicon Slopes)	$1,383	25,170,845	2,255,964	29
39	Hawaii	$1,381	7,469,941	771,315	4
40	North Carolina	$1,378	35,689,838	3,157,740	80
41	Nevada	$1,349	22,659,786	1,566,463	17
42	Greater Orlando	$1,338	21,733,007	1,524,970	4
43	New Orleans	$1,337	5,652,893	617,624	7
44	Baton Rouge	$1,327	5,109,035	483,131	10
45	Harrisburg	$1,321	4,278,436	233,110	3
46	Greater San Antonio	$1,320	15,523,126	932,919	8
47	North Dakota	$1,315	4,863,562	538,145	53
48	Spokane	$1,313	3,305,407	272,441	2
49	California	$1,312	62,274,676	6,981,840	40
50	Lehigh Valley (Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton)	$1,296	4,408,232	306,870	4
51	Richland	$1,288	1,541,668	126,405	2
52	Upstate New York	$1,288	36,694,062	2,935,829	52
53	Green Bay -- Titletown	$1,275	2,158,632	139,405	3
54	Greater Charlotte	$1,270	1,660,522	183,565	3
55	Colorado	$1,268	9,787,263	1,081,765	51
56	Washington State	$1,262	9,628,002	951,585	29
57	Alabama	$1,262	23,530,570	2,216,665	67
58	Wyoming	$1,260	2,699,796	468,288	23
59	Hampton Roads	$1,257	9,389,734	705,560	15
60	the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor	$1,256	2,422,454	228,465	5
61	Florida	$1,251	51,967,464	4,770,295	56
62	Ames	$1,243	410,061	45,565	1
63	Monterey	$1,234	2,723,620	260,675	1
64	Tennessee	$1,232	24,345,064	1,796,330	81
65	Kentucky	$1,229	16,624,661	2,100,155	114
66	Nebraska	$1,228	11,922,407	961,380	93
67	Idaho (Boise)	$1,227	9,846,177	1,182,831	37
68	South Dakota	$1,227	4,418,717	607,515	66
69	Oklahoma	$1,224	19,014,488	1,844,215	77
70	Piedmont Triad (Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point)	$1,207	9,167,625	691,315	10
71	Northwest Arkansas	$1,197	3,462,019	270,694	3
72	New Mexico	$1,187	10,951,448	948,725	33
73	South Carolina	$1,180	23,326,371	2,174,615	43
74	Montana	$1,169	4,777,602	657,875	49
75	Michigan	$1,168	21,739,810	1,917,680	76
76	Illinois	$1,165	10,400,819	933,410	80
77	Bozeman & Greater Yellowstone	$1,149	2,433,110	371,776	14
78	Ohio	$1,131	22,108,508	1,704,140	63
79	Wisconsin	$1,131	14,314,765	1,463,426	63
80	Louisiana	$1,126	11,152,101	1,306,585	47
81	Texas	$1,123	39,817,984	3,293,465	220
82	West Virginia	$1,116	7,400,850	868,163	55
83	Pennsylvania	$1,116	19,828,379	1,586,095	45
84	Iowa	$1,099	7,623,127	995,255	88
85	State College, PA	$1,085	610,224	54,665	1
86	Walla Walla	$1,082	296,415	29,071	1
87	Minnesota	$1,078	8,415,208	895,205	73
88	Gettysburg	$1,071	358,162	33,980	1
89	Arkansas	$1,064	10,865,973	1,013,585	72
90	Erie, PA	$1,046	1,431,451	100,740	1
91	Georgia	$1,041	17,236,037	1,593,505	129
92	Youngstown	$1,013	2,076,219	169,349	2
93	Mississippi	$990	12,190,493	1,043,475	82
94	Missouri	$990	11,991,244	1,321,325	99
95	Puerto Rico	$703	11,275,752	833,993	78