New England Information Office

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Media contact: Walter Marshall (617) 565-2324

USDL-08-066

For release: Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Average weekly wages in Fairfield County were $1,311 in the second quarter of 2007, 7.1 percent greater than last year and the highest rate among Connecticut's four counties with 75,000 or more jobs as measured by 2006 annual average employment. Hartford County's 6.7-percent wage growth was second fastest in the State, followed by New London County at 6.4 percent and New Haven County at 4.6 percent. (See table 1.) Regional Commissioner Denis McSweeney noted that all four of Connecticut's large counties reported average weekly wages above the national average of $820 and that three of the four counties in the State recorded wage growth above the national growth rate of 4.6 percent.

Connecticut's four large counties posted average weekly wages exceeding the national average. Fairfield and Hartford recorded the highest wage levels ($1,311 and $1,035, respectively), followed by New Haven ($878) and New London ($851).

Average weekly wages in Fairfield County were 60 percent above the national level, ranking 7th highest among the 328 largest counties in the United States. In Hartford, average wages were 26 percent above the national wage, ranking it 28th, followed by New Haven (7.0 percent, 73rd) and New London (4.0 percent, 91st). All four large counties ranked in the top third nationally.

Among the 110 counties with above average wages in the second quarter of 2007, New York County, N.Y. held the top position among the highest-paid large counties with an average weekly wage of $1,540. Santa Clara, Calif. was second with an average weekly wage of $1,504, followed by Clayton County, Ga. ($1,358), Washington, D.C. ($1,357), and Arlington, Va. ($1,352). Three of the 10 counties with the highest wages in the U.S. were located in the greater New York metropolitan area (New York, N.Y., Somerset, N.J., and Fairfield, Conn.); 3 others were located in or around the San Francisco area (Santa Clara, Calif., San Francisco, Calif., and San Mateo, Calif.), while 2 others were located in or around the Washington D.C. metropolitan area (Arlington, Va. and Washington, D.C.). Rounding out the top 10 were Suffolk County, Mass., part of the Boston metropolitan area, and Clayton, Ga., part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

There were 218 counties with an average weekly wage below the national average in the second quarter of 2007. The lowest average weekly wage was reported in Cameron County, Texas ($515), followed by the counties of Hidalgo, Texas ($518), Horry, S.C. and Webb, Texas ($545 each), and Yakima, Wash. ($555). The average weekly wage in the lowest-paid county, Cameron, was approximately one-third the wage in the highest-paid county, New York.

Fairfield County's 7.1-percent wage gain was the largest increase in the State in the second quarter of 2007, exceeding the national increase of 4.6 percent. Hartford (6.7 percent) and New London (6.4 percent) counties were also above the U.S. rate of growth, while New Haven (4.6 percent) equaled the national rate. (See table 1.) Wage growth in three of the four counties placed in the top fifth among the 328 largest counties nationally with Fairfield ranking 17th highest followed by Hartford (23rd) and New London (33rd). New Haven's wage increase ranked 110th and placed in the top half of the nation's largest counties.

Among the largest counties in the U.S., Clayton County, Ga. led the nation in growth in average weekly wages with an increase of 87.3 percent from the second quarter of 2006. Queens, N.Y. was second with growth of 12.7 percent, followed by the counties of Rockingham, N.H. (10.1 percent), Ventura, Calif. (9.2 percent), and Lake, Ill. (9.1 percent).

Six large counties experienced over-the-year declines in average weekly wages. Among the five largest decreases in wages, Saginaw, Mich. had the greatest decline (-5.2 percent), followed by the counties of Orleans, La. (-2.9 percent), Lake, Fla. (-1.1 percent), Genesee, Mich. (-1.0 percent), and Lorain, Ohio (-0.9 percent).

Employment grew in Connecticut by 0.9 percent in the second quarter 2007, below the U.S. average growth rate of 1.2 percent. Among the four large counties in Connecticut, Hartford County recorded the highest growth rate at 1.5 percent, followed by Fairfield County at 1.3 percent. New London County posted job growth of 0.7 percent, below than the national average, while New Haven County posted a job loss over the period (-0.4 percent). (See table 1.)

Across the nation, Utah experienced employment growth of 4.4 percent from the second quarter of 2006 to the second quarter of 2007, higher than any other state. Texas was second with a 3.4 percent growth rate, followed by Wyoming (3.3 percent) and Louisiana (3.2 percent). Idaho, North Carolina, and South Carolina rounded out the top five, each posting a job growth rate of 3.0 percent. Four states posted job declines over the period. Michigan posted the largest percentage decline (-1.4 percent), followed by Vermont and Alaska (-0.5 percent each), and Ohio (-0.1 percent).

At the State level, the average weekly wage in Connecticut was $1,033, $213 above the nationwide figure, the 2nd highest wage recorded among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. (See table 2.) Nationally, 9 of the 16 areas in which the average weekly wage levels surpassed the U.S. average fell in a contiguous band along the east coast stretching from New Hampshire to Virginia. The five highest wage levels in the nation were in the District of Columbia ($1,357), Connecticut ($1,033), New York ($1,020), Massachusetts ($1,008), and New Jersey ($989). Average weekly wages in this group were 21 percent or more above that for the nation. During this same period, three states had wage levels averaging less than 75 percent of national earnings: South Dakota ($590), Mississippi ($609), and Montana ($611).

Wyoming experienced wage growth of 8.0 percent from the second quarter of 2006 to the second quarter of 2007, higher than any other state. Utah and Georgia were second and third, posting wage increases of 6.6 and 6.5 percent, respectively. Average weekly wages in Connecticut grew 6.4 percent, the fourth highest in the nation. Montana and New Hampshire tied for fifth highest with each posting a wage growth rate of 6.3 percent. Delaware posted the smallest wage gain, up 2.2 percent. No state experienced over-the-year declines.

Average weekly wage data by county are compiled under the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program, also known as the ES-202 program. The data are derived from reports submitted by employers subject to state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) laws. The 8.9 million employer reports cover 137.0 million full- and part-time workers. The average weekly wage values are calculated by dividing quarterly total wages by the average of the three monthly employment levels. This number then is divided by 13, the number of weeks in a quarter. It is to be noted, therefore, that over-the-year wage changes for geographic areas may reflect shifts in the composition of employment by industry, occupation, and such other factors as hours of work. Thus, wages may vary among counties, metropolitan areas, or states for reasons other than changes in the average wage level. Data for all states, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), counties, and the nation are available on the BLS Web site at http://www.bls.gov/cew/; however, data in QCEW press releases have been revised (see Technical Note below) and may not match the data contained on the Bureau's Web site.

An annual bulletin, Employment and Wages, features comprehensive information by detailed industry on establishments, employment, and wages for the nation and all states. The 2006 edition of this bulletin will contain selected data produced by Business Employment Dynamics (BED) on job gains and losses, as well as selected data from the first quarter 2007 version of the national news release. As with the 2005 edition, this edition will include the data on a CD for enhanced access and usability with the printed booklet containing selected graphic representations of QCEW data; the data tables themselves will be published exclusively in electronic formats as PDFs. Employment and Wages Annual Averages, 2006 will be available for sale in early 2008 from the United States Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250, telephone 866-512-1800, outside Washington, D.C. Within Washington, D.C., the telephone number is 202-512-1800. The fax number is 202-512-2104.

QCEW-based news releases issued by other regional offices have been placed at one convenient BLS Web site location, http://www.bls.gov/cew/cewregional.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 617-565-2072, Federal Relay Services: 1-800-877-8339.

For personal assistance or further information on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages Program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the New England (Boston) Information Office at 617-565-2327 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET.

TECHNICAL NOTE

QCEW data are the sums of individual establishment records reflecting the number of establishments that exist in a county or industry at a point in time. For this reason, county and industry data are not designed to be used as a time series.

The preliminary QCEW data presented in this release may differ from data released by the individual states as well as from the data presented on the BLS Web site. The potential differences result from several causes. Differences between BLS and State published data may be due to the continuing receipt, review and editing of UI data over time. On the other hand, differences between data in this release and the data found on the BLS Web site are the result of adjustments made to improve over-the-year comparisons. Specifically, these adjustments account for administrative (noneconomic) changes such as a correction to a previously reported location or industry classification. Adjusting for these administrative changes allows users to more accurately assess changes of an economic nature (such as a firm moving from one county to another or changing its primary economic activity) over a 12-month period. Currently, adjusted data are available only from BLS press releases.

(1) Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.

(2) Data are preliminary.

(3) Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.

(4) Ranking does not include the county of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

(5) Percent changes were computed from quarterly employment and pay data adjusted for noneconomic county reclassifications.

(6) Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.

(1) Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.

(2) Data are preliminary.

(3) Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.

(4) Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.

(5) Data not included in the national ranking.

Last Modified Date: March 11, 2008

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