January 12, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Counties with most rapid pay growth, second quarter 2005

Among the Nation’s largest counties, Webb, Texas (which includes the city of Laredo), had the largest over-the-year gain in average weekly wages in the second quarter of 2005, an increase of 11.3 percent.

Counties with the largest percentage increases in average weekly wages, second quarter 2004-05
[Chart data—TXT]

San Mateo, California (which is in the San Francisco Bay area), was second, followed by the counties of Clark, Nevada (which includes Las Vegas), Collier, Florida (which includes the city of Naples), and Fairfax, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, D.C.) 

Over the year, the national average weekly wage rose 3.9 percent.

The BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program produced these data. Pay data presented here are for all workers covered by State and Federal unemployment insurance programs. The Nation’s largest counties are those that had employment levels of at least 75,000 in 2004. Find more about pay and employment in large counties in "County Employment and Wages: Second Quarter 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06–40.

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