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	$2,813	24,167,182	2,380,130	13
2	Seattle	$2,344	11,187,654	752,400	3
3	New England	$2,315	13,685,625	992,194	5
4	New York City	$2,278	52,674,658	4,026,314	22
5	the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia)	$2,022	16,136,402	1,300,393	22
6	Boulder	$2,018	1,033,276	109,522	1
7	Denver	$1,861	8,860,060	764,990	10
8	Austin	$1,845	6,671,095	457,430	5
9	Dallas	$1,812	15,557,786	903,172	7
10	Houston	$1,773	18,018,414	1,052,757	10
11	Greater Chicago	$1,719	24,442,197	1,489,831	13
12	the Twin Cities	$1,670	10,001,210	624,195	13
13	Greater San Diego	$1,670	8,818,647	818,858	1
14	Greater Los Angeles	$1,658	35,993,043	4,428,358	2
15	Greater Atlanta	$1,657	15,141,058	1,374,692	29
16	Greater Miami / South Florida	$1,597	16,520,973	1,623,571	3
17	New England (NH · VT · ME · RI · CT)	$1,594	17,454,903	1,910,051	54
18	the Research Triangle	$1,593	6,004,214	502,753	10
19	Philadelphia	$1,592	15,133,611	1,083,272	11
20	Des Moines	$1,565	1,663,225	133,180	5
21	Nashville	$1,512	5,513,034	422,124	14
22	Madison, WI	$1,500	1,481,004	93,205	1
23	Indianapolis	$1,499	5,035,032	312,900	11
24	Detroit	$1,487	10,299,680	672,888	6
25	Pittsburgh	$1,469	5,833,849	397,442	8
26	Cincinnati	$1,445	4,801,640	338,570	14
27	Portland — the Silicon Forest	$1,438	907,395	96,625	2
28	Greater Columbus	$1,424	5,849,843	361,965	10
29	Tampa Bay	$1,418	8,237,330	701,276	4
30	Milwaukee	$1,415	3,585,814	258,490	4
31	Kansas City	$1,406	4,879,533	380,035	14
32	the Sun Belt — Arizona	$1,399	16,987,956	1,194,834	15
33	Oregon	$1,398	8,840,934	881,257	34
34	Alaska	$1,391	1,330,351	114,860	30
35	North Carolina	$1,388	11,764,096	1,048,435	80
36	Greater Cleveland	$1,387	5,488,576	379,487	6
37	Fort Worth	$1,385	6,042,214	357,278	4
38	Greater St. Louis	$1,376	6,760,629	578,727	15
39	Hawaii	$1,354	2,518,879	253,350	4
40	Utah (Silicon Slopes)	$1,351	9,102,866	829,579	29
41	Nevada	$1,320	8,061,839	552,003	17
42	Harrisburg	$1,307	1,419,165	77,015	3
43	New Orleans	$1,303	2,095,470	229,204	7
44	Baton Rouge	$1,300	1,875,937	178,736	10
45	Greater Orlando	$1,299	7,996,892	561,885	4
46	Greater San Antonio	$1,288	5,711,250	350,084	8
47	North Dakota	$1,287	1,610,964	176,315	53
48	California	$1,283	20,608,740	2,269,285	40
49	Greater Charlotte	$1,268	533,400	62,575	3
50	Spokane	$1,265	1,226,818	101,481	2
51	Upstate New York	$1,246	13,329,076	1,099,349	52
52	Lehigh Valley (Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton)	$1,244	1,455,479	100,975	4
53	Green Bay -- Titletown	$1,235	715,252	46,085	3
54	Hampton Roads	$1,229	3,116,311	233,395	15
55	the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor	$1,224	795,340	75,815	5
56	Richland	$1,224	569,552	47,300	2
57	Alabama	$1,222	7,734,895	719,775	67
58	Florida	$1,220	17,268,745	1,559,190	56
59	Colorado	$1,218	3,268,183	348,675	51
60	Ames	$1,217	138,477	15,230	1
61	Washington State	$1,212	3,210,181	318,780	29
62	Kentucky	$1,204	5,509,746	694,860	114
63	Oklahoma	$1,203	6,347,483	613,190	77
64	Wyoming	$1,199	912,919	157,308	23
65	Piedmont Triad (Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point)	$1,197	3,023,232	230,195	10
66	Tennessee	$1,191	8,102,054	588,875	81
67	Nebraska	$1,191	3,945,240	319,270	93
68	South Dakota	$1,186	1,457,718	200,255	66
69	Monterey	$1,152	1,016,230	96,150	1
70	New Mexico	$1,150	3,674,814	312,920	33
71	Idaho (Boise)	$1,147	3,546,013	454,401	37
72	South Carolina	$1,145	7,738,237	738,035	43
73	Northwest Arkansas	$1,139	1,249,395	98,609	3
74	Michigan	$1,132	7,203,656	635,805	76
75	Illinois	$1,117	3,457,727	307,740	80
76	Montana	$1,111	1,578,114	213,785	49
77	Ohio	$1,104	7,357,588	568,090	63
78	Bozeman & Greater Yellowstone	$1,101	874,619	136,396	14
79	Wisconsin	$1,094	4,737,208	486,726	63
80	Texas	$1,090	13,218,530	1,100,265	220
81	Pennsylvania	$1,087	6,532,289	527,370	45
82	West Virginia	$1,084	2,465,332	287,743	55
83	Louisiana	$1,081	3,706,112	430,515	47
84	State College, PA	$1,054	200,439	18,025	1
85	Iowa	$1,043	2,534,568	333,080	88
86	Walla Walla	$1,042	108,386	10,846	1
87	Minnesota	$1,041	2,782,830	298,855	73
88	Gettysburg	$1,039	116,714	11,180	1
89	Arkansas	$1,032	3,622,258	334,155	72
90	Erie, PA	$1,027	475,467	33,500	1
91	Georgia	$1,009	5,701,498	527,350	129
92	Youngstown	$968	753,652	63,549	2
93	Mississippi	$958	4,053,399	342,765	82
94	Missouri	$949	3,928,855	429,600	99
95	Puerto Rico	$679	4,067,524	312,198	78