Bureau of Labor Statistics
New York Office Internet Address: http://www.bls.gov/ro2/ Fax-On-Demand: (212) 337-2412 Media Contact: (212) 337-2420 Information: (212) 337-2400 FOR RELEASE: September 24, 2007
AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES IN PUERTO RICO: FOURTH QUARTER 2006
San Juan's wage level well below the U.S. average
In the fourth quarter of 2006, weekly wages averaged $577 in San
Juan, Puerto Rico's largest municipality. Regional Commissioner
Michael L. Dolfman noted that San Juan's wage level was 33 percent
lower than the U.S. average of $861. Over the year, the San Juan's
6.1-percent rise in wages exceeded wage advances in both Puerto Rico
(4.7 percent) and the United States (4.2 percent). (See table A.)
Employment in San Juan stood at 310,400 in December of 2006,
falling 5.7 percent over the year. Puerto Rico's employment level
declined 3.0 percent during this same period. For the 50 states and
the District of Columbia, total employment increased by 1.6 percent
from December 2005 to December 2006.
Table A. Covered1 employment and wages in the United States and San Juan, Puerto Rico,
f0urth quarter 20062
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Employment Average weekly wage3
--------------------- --------------------
Percent
Area December change, Percent
2006 December Level change,
(thousands) 2005-064 2006 2005-064
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United States5........... 135,933.2 1.6 $861 4.2
Puerto Rico............ 1,062.8 -3.0 494 4.7
San Juan.............. 310.4 -5.7 577 6.1
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1Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation
for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.
2Data are preliminary.
3Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.
4Percent changes were computed from quarterly employment and pay data adjusted for
noneconomic county reclassifications.
5Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
Wage levels
Because San Juan's employment level well exceeds the definition
of a large county (one with employment of 75,000 or more), its
average wage can be compared to the wages of the 325 largest counties
nationwide. Over two-thirds of these counties had weekly wages lower
than the national average, and if San Juan was counted among this
group, it would place fifth lowest in the ranking. Only the counties
of Webb, Texas ($571), Yakima, Wash. ($570), Hidalgo, Texas ($542)
and Cameron, Texas ($527) had lower wage levels than San Juan.
At the other end of the wage scale, New York County, N.Y.,
recorded the highest average weekly wage at $1,781. Santa Clara,
Calif., was second with an average weekly wage of $1,569, followed by
Fairfield, Conn. ($1,515), and Suffolk, Mass. ($1,481). Three of the
10 counties with the highest wages in the nation were located in the
greater New York metropolitan area (New York, N.Y.; Fairfield, Conn.;
and Somerset, N.J.), 3 others were located in or around the San
Francisco area (Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Mateo, all in
California), while 3 more were located in or around the Washington,
D.C., metropolitan area (Washington, D.C., Arlington, Va., and
Fairfax, Va.). Rounding out the top 10 was Suffolk County, Mass.,
part of the Boston metropolitan area.
Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 5 reported
average wages more than 20 percent above the $861 national average:
District of Columbia ($1,424), New York ($1,104), Connecticut
($1,101), Massachusetts ($1,072), and New Jersey ($1,055). At the
lower end of the scale, four states had wage levels averaging less
than 75 percent of the national earnings: South Dakota ($614),
Montana ($625), North Dakota ($643), and Mississippi ($630). Puerto
Rico's average weekly wage of $494 in the fourth quarter of 2006 fell
43 percent below the national level and was 20 percent below the
lowest ranked state. The Virgin Islands, another territory, also
reported a lower-than-average wage, but at $711, its wage was 44
percent higher than Puerto Rico's. (See table 1.)
Over-the-year wage changes
San Juan's 6.1-percent over-the-year wage increase in the fourth
quarter of 2006 surpassed the averages for both Puerto Rico and the
United States (4.7 and 4.2 percent, respectively). Of the 325 large
U.S. counties, 31 posted higher wage growth than San Juan.
Nationwide, 122, or 37 percent, of these largest counties recorded
over-the-year percent changes at or above the national average.
Leading the nation in average weekly wage growth was Rockingham
County, New Hampshire, with an increase of 18.0 percent. Sedgwick,
Kans., and Trumbull, Ohio, tied for second with wage growth of 14.0
percent, followed by Travis, Texas, 10.9 percent, Waukesha, Wis.,
10.4 percent, and Santa Cruz, Cal. (10.1 percent). Eight counties
experienced over-the-year declines in average weekly wages. New
Castle, Del. (-5.7 percent) had the largest decrease, followed by the
counties of Elkhart, Ind. (-5.3 percent), Orleans, La. (-4.4
percent), York, Pa. (-4.3 percent), and Harrison, Miss. (-2.4
percent)
Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Wyoming had
the largest over-the-year wage growth, 11.3 percent, followed by New
Hampshire (8.1 percent), New Mexico (7.1 percent), Idaho (7.0
percent), and Kansas (6.5 percent). Delaware was the only state with
a decline in wages (-4.1 percent). Nationwide, 30 states and the
District of Columbia had wage growth above the 4.2-percent increase
for the nation. Wage gains in Puerto Rico (4.7 percent) and the
Virgin Islands (7.2 percent) also exceeded the U.S. average from the
fourth quarter of 2005.
Employment
In December 2006, employment in San Juan stood at 310,400,
accounting for 29 percent of Puerto Rico's workforce. Over the year,
San Juan's employment declined by 5.7 percent. Of the 325 largest
counties nationwide, 41 registered a decrease in employment. The
five large counties with the greatest percentage decline in jobs were
all located in the Midwest: Trumbull, Ohio (-4.7 percent), Elkhart,
Ind. (-3.3 percent), Wayne, Mich. (-3.1 percent), Oakland, Mich. (-
2.7 percent), and Genesee, Mich. (-2.4 percent). Solano, Ca. (-2.2
percent), was the other county with an employment decline exceeding 2
percent.
Nationally, Gulf Coast counties, partially recovering from the
depressed employment levels following Hurricane Katrina, experienced
the largest over-the-year percentage increases in
employment-Harrison, Miss. (18.7 percent), Orleans, La. (12.2
percent), and Jefferson, La. (10.5).
Williamson, Tex. (7.7 percent) was the only other county to have over-
the-year growth above 7 percent. Overall, employment increased in
270 of the nation's large counties from December 2005 to December
2006.
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 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
quarterly total wages of employees covered by UI programs by the
average monthly number of these employees. 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, 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 2005 edition of this
bulletin contains selected data produced by Business Employment
Dynamics (BED) on job gains and losses, as well as selected data from
the fourth quarter 2005 version of this news release. This edition
is the first to include the data on a CD for enhanced access and
usability. As a result of this change, the printed booklet contains
only selected graphic representations of QCEW data; the data
tables themselves are published exclusively in electronic formats as
PDF and fixed-width text files. Employment and Wages Annual
Averages, 2005 is available for sale from the United States
Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box
371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250, telephone 866-512-1800, outside of
Washington, D.C. Within Washington, D.C., the telephone number is
202-512-1800. The fax number is 202-512-2104. Also, the 2005
bulletin is available in a portable document format (PDF) on the BLS
Web site at http://www.bls.gov/cew/cewbultn05.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 New York-New Jersey Information Office at (212)
337-2400 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET.
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| Hurricane Katrina |
| The employment and wages reported in this news release reflect the |
| impact of Hurricane Katrina and ongoing labor market trends in |
| certain counties. The effects of Hurricane Katrina, which hit the |
| Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, were first apparent in the September |
| QCEW employment counts and in the wage totals for the third quarter |
| of 2005. This catastrophic storm continued to affect monthly |
| employment and quarterly wage totals in parts of Louisiana and |
| Mississippi in the fourth quarter of 2006. For more information, see |
| the QCEW section of the Katrina coverage on the BLS Web site at |
| http://www.bls.gov/katrina/qcewquestions.htm. |
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NYLS -7300 New York Labor
09/19/06
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.
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| Upcoming Changes to Quarterly Census of Employment and Wage Data |
| Data for 2006 will be the last from the Quarterly Census of |
| Employment and Wages (QCEW) program using the 2002 version of the |
| North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). With the |
| release of first quarter 2007 data, scheduled for October 18, the |
| QCEW program will switch to the 2007 NAICS as the basis for the |
| assignment and tabulation of economic data by industry. |
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Table 1. Covered1 employment and wages by state and territory, fourth quarter 20062
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Employment Average weekly wage3
---------- ---------------------------------------------
National
Area December Average National Percent rank
2006 weekly rank by change, by percent
(thousands) wage level4 2005-06 change4
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United States5 135,933.2 $861 - 4.2 -
Alabama 1,948.9 737 33 4.4 27
Alaska 296.2 837 17 5.3 11
Arizona 2,693.3 805 22 4.7 18
Arkansas 1,179.3 652 47 2.8 43
California 15,672.1 987 6 4.4 27
Colorado 2,283.3 877 12 5.0 15
Connecticut 1,706.3 1,101 3 2.0 50
Delaware 427.5 896 10 -4.1 51
District of Columbia 675.0 1,424 1 5.0 15
Florida 8,126.2 788 23 4.6 20
Georgia 4,090.4 812 21 2.1 49
Hawaii 632.3 762 27 3.5 38
Idaho 649.8 672 45 7.0 4
Illinois 5,899.5 928 8 4.6 20
Indiana 2,924.3 723 36 2.6 45
Iowa 1,486.3 697 40 3.7 35
Kansas 1,358.9 725 34 6.5 5
Kentucky 1,815.4 708 37 3.8 33
Louisiana 1,855.1 748 30 5.1 14
Maine 603.4 679 43 2.7 44
Maryland 2,570.5 941 7 3.4 39
Massachusetts 3,244.5 1,072 4 4.5 25
Michigan 4,242.5 852 14 2.2 48
Minnesota 2,683.1 840 16 4.0 32
Mississippi 1,140.3 630 49 2.6 45
Missouri 2,737.5 741 32 2.3 47
Montana 431.6 625 50 5.8 6
Nebraska 912.2 687 42 3.6 37
Nevada 1,285.8 817 19 5.4 10
New Hampshire 636.9 917 9 8.1 2
New Jersey 4,023.6 1,055 5 4.4 27
New Mexico 823.2 705 39 7.1 3
New York 8,643.1 1,104 2 5.3 11
North Carolina 4,054.0 751 29 4.6 20
North Dakota 341.0 643 48 4.7 18
Ohio 5,346.2 774 24 3.1 42
Oklahoma 1,536.4 679 43 5.8 6
Oregon 1,723.9 763 26 4.8 17
Pennsylvania 5,680.8 837 17 4.4 27
Rhode Island 488.4 817 19 3.8 33
South Carolina 1,886.8 688 41 3.3 41
South Dakota 387.1 614 51 4.2 31
Tennessee 2,785.2 773 25 4.6 20
Texas 10,164.2 871 13 5.8 6
Utah 1,208.0 725 34 5.5 9
Vermont 308.7 707 38 3.4 39
Virginia 3,682.9 887 11 3.7 35
Washington 2,863.7 846 15 5.2 13
West Virginia 714.3 656 46 4.6 20
Wisconsin 2,792.4 746 31 4.5 25
Wyoming 270.9 759 28 11.3 1
Puerto Rico 1,062.8 494 (6) 4.7 6
Virgin Islands 45.5 711 (6) 7.2 6
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1Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation
for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.
2Data are preliminary.
3Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.
4Ranking does not include Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
5Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
6Data not included in the national ranking.
Last Modified Date: September 26, 2007
