General Information: (312) 353-1880 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Paul LaPorte Tuesday, November 27, 2007 (312) 353-1138 http://www.bls.gov/ro5 AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES IN INDIANA: FIRST QUARTER 2007 The average weekly wage in Marion County increased 3.4 percent from first quarter of 2006 to first quarter of 2007. This was the largest advance among Indiana's eight counties with employment of 75,000 or more (based on 2006 average annual employment) according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). St. Joseph County had the State's second highest wage growth rate at 3.2 percent; Tippecanoe County was third with an increase of 3.1 percent. Marion County had the highest average weekly wage level in the State at $930, followed by Hamilton County at $865. (See table A.) Regional Commissioner Jay A. Mousa noted that among Indiana's eight largest counties, only Marion County's wage level was significantly above the national level of $885. County Wage levels Wages in the two highest-paying counties in Indiana, Marion and Hamilton, placed them in the top third of the national ranking among the 328 largest counties in the U.S. The average weekly wage in Marion County was $45 above the national average and ranked 69th. The wage in Hamilton County was close to the nationwide average and ranked 106th. Among the other six Indiana counties, St. Joseph ($699) had the lowest average wage in the State, placing it among the bottom third in the nation at 261st. Also in the bottom third were the counties of Elkhart ($703, 258th), Vanderburgh ($706, 256th), and Allen ($718, 238th). Across the country, average weekly wages were higher than the national average in 92 of the largest 328 U.S. counties. New York County, N.Y., held the top position among the highest-paid large counties with an average weekly wage of $2,821. Fairfield, Conn., was second with an average weekly wage of $1,979, followed by Suffolk, Mass. ($1,659), San Francisco, Calif. ($1,639), and Somerset, N.J. ($1,615). There were 236 counties with an average weekly wage below the national average in the first quarter of 2007. The lowest average weekly wage was reported in Cameron County, Texas ($502), followed by the counties of Hidalgo, Texas ($516); Horry, S.C. ($536); Webb, Texas ($542); and Yakima, Wash. ($569). Table A. Covered 1/ employment and wages in the United States and the 8 largest counties in Indiana, first quarter 2007 2/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Average weekly wage 3/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | Percent |National | Employment |Average |National | change | ranking Area | March 2007 | weekly |ranking by | first qtr.|by percent | (thousands) | wage |level 4/ | 2006-07 5/| change 4/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- United States (6) | 134,320.6 | $885 -- 5.1 -- | | Indiana | 2,880.8 | 739 30 2.9 44 | | Allen, Ind. | 182.9 | 718 238 2.3 258 Elkhart, Ind. | 124.7 | 703 258 .0 309 Hamilton, Ind. | 107.2 | 865 106 2.2 261 Lake, Ind. | 192.5 | 735 221 1.9 277 Marion, Ind. | 573.7 | 930 69 3.4 199 St. Joseph, Ind. | 122.8 | 699 261 3.2 212 Tippecanoe, Ind. | 76.1 | 736 219 3.1 221 Vanderburgh, Ind. | 107.2 | 706 256 2.0 271 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/ Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs. These 328 U.S. counties comprise 71.1 percent of the total workers in the U.S. 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. County Wage Changes None of Indiana's eight large counties recorded wage growth above the national increase of 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2007. (See table A.) As mentioned, Marion County's 3.4- percent wage gain was the largest increase in the State and ranked 199th highest in the nation. Six of the remaining large counties-St. Joseph, Tippecanoe, Allen, Hamilton, Vanderburgh, and Lake-experienced wage growth in a band ranging from 3.2 to 1.9 percent, placing them from 212th to 277th in the national rankings. Wages in Elkhart County were unchanged. State Average Weekly Wages At the state level, the average weekly wage in Indiana was $739, $146 below the national average and ranked 30th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. (See table 1.) The five highest wage levels in the nation were in the District of Columbia ($1,428), New York ($1,397), Connecticut ($1,263), Massachusetts ($1,110), and New Jersey ($1,097). Average weekly wages in this group were 24 percent or more above that for the nation. The five states with the lowest weekly wages were Montana ($600), South Dakota ($602), North Dakota ($615), Mississippi ($616), and Idaho ($636). All of these states had wages more than 28 percent below the national average. The average weekly wage in Indiana increased 2.9 percent over the year, ranking 44th among the 50 states and District of Columbia. At the State level, the highest over-the-year wage gain in the first quarter of 2007 was recorded by New York (11.8 percent), followed by Wyoming (9.3 percent), and Rhode Island (7.1 percent). The slowest wage growth in the United States occurred in Oklahoma (1.3 percent), Delaware (2.1 percent), South Carolina (2.3 percent), Vermont (2.3 percent), and Oregon (2.7 percent). The employment and 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 every employer subject to unemployment insurance (UI) laws. The 8.9 million employer reports cover 135.9 million full- and part-time workers. The average weekly wage is computed by dividing the total quarterly payroll of employees covered under UI programs by the average monthly number of these employees. This number is then 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 other such 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. Additional statistics and other information 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 this 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 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: (202) 691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 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 Midwest Information Office in Chicago at (312) 353-1880 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CT. 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. Table 1. Covered 1/ employment and wages by state, first quarter 2007 2/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Average weekly wage 3/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | Percent |National | Employment |Average |National | change | ranking Area | March 2007 | weekly |ranking by |first qtr.|by percent | (thousands)| wage | level | 2006-07 | change --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- United States 4/ 134,320.6 $885 - 5.1 - Alabama 1,953.7 716 35 3.5 39 Alaska 299.8 831 20 5.2 11 Arizona 2,667.2 803 21 4.7 18 Arkansas 1,179.9 642 46 3.2 42 California 15,569.4 988 6 3.9 34 Colorado 2,262.4 889 11 3.6 37 Connecticut 1,665.0 1,263 3 6.1 4 Delaware 416.6 986 7 2.1 50 District of Columbia 674.4 1,428 1 4.7 18 Florida 8,093.4 764 25 3.4 40 Georgia 4,065.1 837 17 4.9 14 Hawaii 626.4 748 27 4.2 30 Idaho 645.0 636 47 4.6 23 Illinois 5,795.7 956 8 4.6 23 Indiana 2,880.8 739 30 2.9 44 Iowa 1,457.6 686 39 3.6 37 Kansas 1,349.1 720 34 4.7 18 Kentucky 1,791.5 699 37 4.0 32 Louisiana 1,863.5 730 32 4.4 27 Maine 582.1 677 41 3.7 36 Maryland 2,527.0 939 9 4.6 23 Massachusetts 3,167.5 1,110 4 6.1 4 Michigan 4,130.2 851 15 4.0 32 Minnesota 2,629.6 873 12 5.2 11 Mississippi 1,127.3 616 48 3.2 42 Missouri 2,710.1 744 29 2.9 44 Montana 428.8 600 51 4.9 14 Nebraska 899.3 667 44 2.8 46 Nevada 1,282.3 802 22 4.8 16 New Hampshire 619.8 836 18 4.6 23 New Jersey 3,926.6 1,097 5 5.6 7 New Mexico 819.3 685 40 5.9 6 New York 8,441.3 1,397 2 11.8 1 North Carolina 4,034.3 779 24 4.7 18 North Dakota 334.5 615 49 4.8 16 Ohio 5,241.0 793 23 5.3 9 Oklahoma 1,534.3 676 43 1.3 51 Oregon 1,707.8 755 26 2.7 47 Pennsylvania 5,589.6 849 16 5.1 13 Rhode Island 472.2 834 19 7.1 3 South Carolina 1,885.9 677 41 2.3 48 South Dakota 381.9 602 50 3.4 40 Tennessee 2,732.5 738 31 4.7 18 Texas 10,143.0 872 13 5.6 7 Utah 1,203.9 696 38 5.3 9 Vermont 300.0 704 36 2.3 48 Virginia 3,644.6 901 10 4.4 27 Washington 2,869.9 868 14 4.3 29 West Virginia 700.3 652 45 4.2 30 Wisconsin 2,727.7 745 28 3.9 34 Wyoming 269.1 730 32 9.3 2 Puerto Rico 1,024.5 476 5/ 5.3 5/ Virgin Islands 45.6 687 5/ 6.3 5/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: November 28, 2007