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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.
92 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 York City $2,283 142,458,494 10,803,689 22
4 New England $2,279 39,525,452 2,921,165 7
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 the Research Triangle $1,623 16,469,712 1,345,588 10
18 Philadelphia $1,613 40,935,505 2,918,257 11
19 Nashville $1,577 15,437,490 1,149,359 14
20 Madison, WI $1,564 4,494,418 282,040 1
21 Des Moines $1,552 4,999,362 400,505 5
22 Detroit $1,534 27,904,925 1,803,208 6
23 Pittsburgh $1,492 15,833,014 1,063,982 8
24 Portland — the Silicon Forest $1,484 2,444,483 257,235 2
25 Indianapolis $1,469 15,159,974 940,260 11
26 Tampa Bay $1,466 22,209,772 1,903,896 4
27 Greater Columbus $1,461 16,117,196 967,740 10
28 Cincinnati $1,447 14,510,130 1,019,555 14
29 Kansas City $1,436 14,700,668 1,173,960 14
30 Oregon $1,436 24,749,597 2,438,012 34
31 Alaska $1,432 3,932,486 346,955 30
32 Milwaukee $1,431 10,823,643 780,350 4
33 the Sun Belt — Arizona $1,430 45,887,045 3,190,429 15
34 Greater Cleveland $1,426 14,942,173 1,009,497 6
35 Fort Worth $1,418 16,498,370 952,828 4
36 Greater St. Louis $1,417 18,440,906 1,579,427 15
37 Hawaii $1,381 7,469,941 771,315 4
38 North Carolina $1,378 35,689,838 3,157,740 80
39 Nevada $1,349 22,659,786 1,566,463 17
40 Greater Orlando $1,338 21,733,007 1,524,970 4
41 New Orleans $1,337 5,652,893 617,624 7
42 Bozeman & Greater Yellowstone $1,331 1,279,025 217,248 7
43 Baton Rouge $1,327 5,109,035 483,131 10
44 Harrisburg $1,321 4,278,436 233,110 3
45 Greater San Antonio $1,320 15,523,126 932,919 8
46 North Dakota $1,315 4,863,562 538,145 53
47 Spokane $1,313 3,305,407 272,441 2
48 California $1,312 62,274,676 6,981,840 40
49 Lehigh Valley (Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton) $1,296 4,408,232 306,870 4
50 Upstate New York $1,288 36,694,062 2,935,829 52
51 Richland $1,288 1,541,668 126,405 2
52 Green Bay -- Titletown $1,275 2,158,632 139,405 3
53 Greater Charlotte $1,270 1,660,522 183,565 3
54 Colorado $1,268 9,787,263 1,081,765 51
55 Washington State $1,262 9,628,002 951,585 29
56 Alabama $1,262 23,530,570 2,216,665 67
57 Wyoming $1,260 2,699,796 468,288 23
58 Hampton Roads $1,257 9,389,734 705,560 15
59 the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor $1,256 2,422,454 228,465 5
60 Florida $1,251 51,967,464 4,770,295 56
61 Ames $1,243 410,061 45,565 1
62 Monterey $1,234 2,723,620 260,675 1
63 Tennessee $1,232 24,345,064 1,796,330 81
64 Kentucky $1,229 16,624,661 2,100,155 114
65 Nebraska $1,228 11,922,407 961,380 93
66 South Dakota $1,227 4,418,717 607,515 66
67 Oklahoma $1,224 19,014,488 1,844,215 77
68 Piedmont Triad (Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point) $1,207 9,167,625 691,315 10
69 Idaho (Boise) $1,198 11,000,262 1,337,359 44
70 Northwest Arkansas $1,197 3,462,019 270,694 3
71 New Mexico $1,187 10,951,448 948,725 33
72 South Carolina $1,180 23,326,371 2,174,615 43
73 Montana $1,169 4,777,602 657,875 49
74 Michigan $1,168 21,739,810 1,917,680 76
75 Illinois $1,165 10,400,819 933,410 80
76 Wisconsin $1,131 14,314,765 1,463,426 63
77 Ohio $1,131 22,108,508 1,704,140 63
78 Louisiana $1,126 11,152,101 1,306,585 47
79 Texas $1,123 39,817,984 3,293,465 220
80 West Virginia $1,116 7,400,850 868,163 55
81 Pennsylvania $1,116 19,828,379 1,586,095 45
82 Iowa $1,099 7,623,127 995,255 88
83 State College, PA $1,085 610,224 54,665 1
84 Walla Walla $1,082 296,415 29,071 1
85 Minnesota $1,078 8,415,208 895,205 73
86 Gettysburg $1,071 358,162 33,980 1
87 Arkansas $1,064 10,865,973 1,013,585 72
88 Erie, PA $1,046 1,431,451 100,740 1
89 Georgia $1,041 17,236,037 1,593,505 129
90 Youngstown $1,013 2,076,219 169,349 2
91 Mississippi $990 12,190,493 1,043,475 82
92 Missouri $990 11,991,244 1,321,325 99