October 19, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

San Mateo County, California had highest growth in pay in 2000

Three of the four counties with the highest rates of pay growth among the Nation's largest counties in 2000 are located in the San Francisco Bay area. San Mateo County, California, had the highest pay growth with an increase of 30.2 percent from 1999 to 2000.

[Chart data—TXT]

Second among the counties in pay growth was Santa Clara, California at 24.5 percent, followed by the counties of Morris, New Jersey (19.0 percent), Santa Cruz, California (15.5 percent), and Boulder, Colorado (13.9 percent).

In the U.S. overall, average annual pay rose by 5.9 percent in 2000.

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. Find more information on pay in large counties in 2000 in "Employment and Average Annual Pay for Large Counties, 2000," news release USDL 01-352. The largest counties are defined as those with covered employment levels of 75,000 or more in 2000.