Internet: www.bls.gov/ro5/ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GENERAL INFORMATION: (312) 353-1880 Thursday, June 5, 2008
MEDIA CONTACT: Paul LaPorte 
(312) 353-1138  

 County Employment and Wages in Minnesota, Third Quarter 2007

The average weekly wage in Ramsey County increased 5.5 percent from the third quarter of 2006 to the third quarter of 2007, the largest advance among Minnesota’s seven counties with employment of 75,000 or more (as measured by 2006 annual average employment.) Hennepin County’s 5.4-percent wage growth was the second fastest in the State. Hennepin County also had the highest average weekly wage level in Minnesota at $1,043 followed by the counties of Olmsted ($904) and Ramsey ($896). (See table 1.) Regional Commissioner Jay A. Mousa noted that among Minnesota’s seven largest counties, only Ramsey and Hennepin reported wage growth above the national increase of 4.3 percent. Three counties—Hennepin, Olmsted, and Ramsey—had weekly wages that exceeded the national average of $818.

Among the seven largest counties in Minnesota, employment was highest in Hennepin County (849,500) and lowest in Stearns County (82,800). Four counties— Stearns, St. Louis, Dakota, and Olmsted—had over-the-year employment growth above the 0.9 percent national average.

Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 80 counties in Minnesota with employment below 75,000. All of the State’s smaller counties had average weekly wages below the national level. (See table 2.)

County Wage levels

In Hennepin County, wages were $225 or 27.5 percent above the national average, ranking it 22nd among the 328 largest counties in the U.S. Wages in Olmsted and Ramsey Counties were $86 and $78 above the national average and ranked 59th and 62nd, respectively. All three counties were in the top quarter of the nationwide rankings by wage level.

At the other end of the wage spectrum, Stearns and St. Louis Counties reported the lowest average weekly wages among the State’s largest counties, $657 and $667, respectively, ranking them 290th and 279th nationally.Both of these Minnesota counties had wage levels in the bottom quarter of the national ranking.

Across the country, average weekly wages were higher than the national average in 112 of the largest 328 U.S. counties. Santa Clara, Calif., held the top position among the highest-paid large counties with an average weekly wage of $1,585. New York County, N.Y., was second with an average weekly wage of $1,544, followed by Washington, D.C. ($1,376), Arlington, Va. ($1,364), and San Mateo, Calif. ($1,322).

Nationwide, there were 215 counties with an average weekly wage below the national average in the third quarter of 2007. The lowest average weekly wage was reported in Cameron County, Texas ($518), followed by the counties of Hidalgo, Texas ($529), Horry, S.C. ($536), Webb, Texas ($548), and Yakima, Wash. ($568).

County Wage Changes

As noted, only two of Minnesota’s seven largest counties recorded over-the-year wage growth at a pace greater than the national average increase of 4.3 percent. Ramsey County’s 5.5-percent increase ranked 48th in the nation and Hennepin County’s 5.4-percent increase ranked 55th among the 328 large counties nationwide. (See table 1.) The State’s five remaining large counties—Dakota, Anoka, Olmsted, Stearns, and St. Louis, experienced wage increases ranging from 2.1 to 4.2 percent over the year.

Among the largest counties in the nation, Clayton County, Ga., led the nation in growth in average weekly wages, with an increase of 23.9 percent from the third quarter of 2006 to the third quarter of 2007. Muscogee, Ga., was second with growth of 12.1 percent, followed by the counties of Santa Clara, Calif. (11.8 percent), Rock Island, Ill. (11.5 percent), and Davidson, Tenn. (9.1 percent).

Over the year, 10 large counties experienced declines in average weekly wages. The five largest decreases in wages occurred in Trumbull, Ohio (-10.6 percent), Vanderburgh, Ind. (-6.1 percent), Genesee, Mich. (-4.0 percent), Saginaw, Mich. (-3.1 percent), and Montgomery, Ohio (-3.0 percent).

Wage Levels in Minnesota’s Smaller Counties

All of the 80 counties in Minnesota with employment below 75,000 had average weekly wages below the national average. Carver County reported the highest wage level at $803 followed by Scott County at $708. Traverse County reported the lowest wage level at $455.

When all 87 counties in Minnesota were considered, 55, or 63 percent, had wages below $600. Twenty-eight of the counties reported average weekly wages from $600 to $799 in the third quarter of 2007, and 4 counties had wages above $800. Three of these better-paid counties were located in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area and one was located in the Rochester Metropolitan Area.

State Average Weekly Wages

At the state level, the average weekly wage in Minnesota was $822, $4 above the nationwide figure and ranked 15th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. (See table 3.) The five highest wage levels in the nation were in the District of Columbia ($1,376), Connecticut ($1,021), New York ($1,009), Massachusetts ($1,002), and New Jersey ($965). Average weekly wages in these states were at least 18 percent higher than the national average. Three states had average earnings of less than 75 percent of the national average: South Dakota ($598), Mississippi ($607), and Montana ($608).

Minnesota experienced wage growth of 4.6 percent from the third quarter of 2006 to the third quarter of 2007, ranking 16th among the 50 states and District of Columbia. The neighboring states of North Dakota and South Dakota reported larger over-the-year-wage increases of 5.8 and 4.7 percent, respectively. Wage growth in Iowa (4.2 percent) and Wisconsin (2.6 percent) was slower than in Minnesota. The highest over-the-year wage gains in the third quarter of 2007 were recorded by Washington (6.7 percent), Connecticut (6.6 percent), and New York (6.1 percent). The only state to report a decline in average weekly wages was Rhode Island, where wages edged down 0.1 percent.

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 9.0 million employer reports cover 136.2 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 of those covered by UI programs. The result 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 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 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 contains 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. This edition includes the data on a CD for enhanced access and usability. As a result of this change, the printed booklet contains only selected graphic representation 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, 2006 is now available for sale from the United States Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents. On-line ordering information is available at bookstore.gpo.gov. The 2006 bulletin is available in a portable document format (PDF) on the BLS Web site at www.bls.gov/cew/cewbultn06.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 in the United States and the 7 largest counties in Minnesota, third quarter 2007 (2)
Area Employment Average Weekly Wage (3)
September 2007 (thousands) Percent change, September 2006-07 (5) Average weekly wage National ranking by level (4) Percent change, third quarter 2006-07 (5) National ranking by percent change (4)

United States (6)

 136,246.9 0.9 $818 — 4.3 —

   Minnesota

 2,713.3 0.9 822 15 4.6 16

     Anoka, Minn.

 116.7 0.6 769 159 2.9 216

     Dakota, Minn.

 177.2 1.9 772 155 2.1 261

     Hennepin, Minn.

 849.5 0.8 1,043 22 5.4 55

     Olmsted, Minn.

 91.7 1.4 904 59 3.2 199

     Ramsey, Minn.

 337.0 0.9 896 62 5.5 48

     St. Louis, Minn.

 98.4 2.0 667 279 4.2 110

     Stearns, Minn.

 82.8 3.0 657 290 4.0 125
  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. 
 
Table 2. Covered (1) employment and wages in the United States and all of the counties in Minnesota, third quarter 2007 (2)
Area Employment September 2007  Average weekly wage (3)

United States (4)

 136,246,900 $818

  Minnesota

 2,713,335 822

   Aitkin

 4,324 503

   Anoka

 116,726 769

   Becker

 13,183 523

   Beltrami

 18,338 579

   Benton

 16,899 633

   Big Stone

 1,969 488

   Blue Earth

 37,307 617

   Brown

 14,267 598

   Carlton

 13,559 631

   Carver

 32,351 803

   Cass

 10,225 466

   Chippewa

 5,867 533

   Chisago

 14,620 631

   Clay

 18,087 542

   Clearwater

 2,487 520

   Cook

 2,978 491

   Cottonwood

 5,080 516

   Crow Wing

 29,769 573

   Dakota

 177,151 772

   Dodge

 5,624 644

   Douglas

 17,654 579

   Faribault

 5,647 653

   Fillmore

 6,423 486

   Freeborn

 12,895 546

   Goodhue

 21,502 626

   Grant

 1,858 499

   Hennepin

 849,506 1,043

   Houston

 4,965 459

   Hubbard

 6,514 526

   Isanti

 11,027 599

   Itasca

 15,941 621

   Jackson

 4,907 504

   Kanabec

 3,951 522

   Kandiyohi

 23,197 574

   Kittson

 1,418 508

   Koochiching

 5,343 675

   Lac Qui Parle

 2,447 491

   Lake

 4,450 608

   Lake of the Woods

 1,472 487

   Le Sueur

 8,288 561

   Lincoln

 1,657 470

   Lyon

 14,898 615

   McLeod

 18,352 674

   Mahnomen

 2,021 493

   Marshall

 2,351 548

   Martin

 9,350 594

   Meeker

 6,959 590

   Mille Lacs

 9,823 529

   Morrison

 11,681 571

   Mower

 16,521 622

   Murray

 2,849 484

   Nicollet

 14,610 627

   Nobles

 10,483 544

   Norman

 1,821 493

   Olmsted

 91,690 904

   Otter Tail

 22,338 533

   Pennington

 9,213 619

   Pine

 7,993 487

   Pipestone

 4,472 495

   Polk

 12,652 527

   Pope

 3,992 527

   Ramsey

 337,001 896

   Red Lake

 1,226 575

   Redwood

 6,706 526

   Renville

 6,125 545

   Rice

 23,549 658

   Rock

 3,301 522

   Roseau

 9,025 613

   St. Louis

 98,390 667

   Scott

 44,011 708

   Sherburne

 23,929 677

   Sibley

 4,420 535

   Stearns

 82,808 657

   Steele

 21,609 640

   Stevens

 5,148 621

   Swift

 3,945 552

   Todd

 6,341 532

   Traverse

 1,280 455

   Wabasha

 7,236 552

   Wadena

 5,869 560

   Waseca

 8,151 566

   Washington

 74,598 692

   Watonwan

 4,250 511

   Wilkin

 1,982 543

   Winona

 25,328 608

   Wright

 38,345 602

   Yellow Medicine

 4,547 566
  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.
 
Table 3. Covered (1) employment and wages by state, third quarter 2007 (2)
State Employment Average weekly wage (3)
September 2007 (thousands) Percent change, September 2006-07  Average weekly wage National ranking by level  Percent change, third quarter 2006-07  National ranking by percent change 

United States (4)

 136,246.9 0.9 $818 - 4.3 -

Alabama

 1,959.0 1.1 707 32 3.7 37

Alaska

 327.3 0.7 840 13 5.4 9

Arizona

 2,644.9 0.5 783 20 4.1 25

Arkansas

 1,184.5 0.3 629 46 4.1 25

California

 15,755.0 0.7 932 6 4.5 18

Colorado

 2,314.3 2.4 844 12 3.2 42

Connecticut

 1,696.9 1.0 1,021 2 6.6 2

Delaware

 425.2 0.1 860 10 1.2 50

District of Columbia

 679.0 0.6 1,376 1 5.3 12

Florida

 7,879.9 -0.9 741 26 4.1 25

Georgia

 4,089.4 1.2 782 21 4.1 25

Hawaii

 624.4 0.3 760 22 5.4 9

Idaho

 675.5 2.2 634 45 3.4 41

Illinois

 5,917.6 0.6 866 9 4.0 32

Indiana

 2,937.4 0.5 702 34 2.2 49

Iowa

 1,494.5 0.9 668 40 4.2 22

Kansas

 1,368.7 1.7 680 38 2.7 46

Kentucky

 1,814.3 1.0 676 39 3.0 44

Louisiana

 1,880.8 2.7 716 31 4.5 18

Maine

 615.3 0.7 660 44 3.9 35

Maryland

 2,563.7 0.7 892 7 4.1 25

Massachusetts

 3,261.0 1.0 1,002 4 5.5 5

Michigan

 4,218.2 -1.4 808 16 2.4 48

Minnesota

 2,713.3 0.9 822 15 4.6 16

Mississippi

 1,142.2 0.6 607 50 3.8 36

Missouri

 2,746.7 0.8 719 29 4.2 22

Montana

 446.1 2.7 608 49 4.6 16

Nebraska

 922.7 1.7 666 41 5.4 9

Nevada

 1,286.4 -0.1 792 19 5.5 5

New Hampshire

 637.2 0.3 799 18 3.2 42

New Jersey

 3,985.2 0.1 965 5 3.7 37

New Mexico

 830.4 0.8 682 37 4.1 25

New York

 8,585.3 1.3 1,009 3 6.1 3

North Carolina

 4,104.1 2.4 719 29 3.5 40

North Dakota

 347.4 1.5 621 48 5.8 4

Ohio

 5,331.9 -0.2 745 25 2.8 45

Oklahoma

 1,548.2 1.8 666 41 5.5 5

Oregon

 1,751.7 1.2 750 24 4.2 22

Pennsylvania

 5,673.4 0.5 802 17 4.4 20

Rhode Island

 486.1 -1.0 759 23 -0.1 51

South Carolina

 1,904.7 1.7 664 43 3.6 39

South Dakota

 397.5 2.0 598 51 4.7 15

Tennessee

 2,774.4 0.5 728 28 4.3 21

Texas

 10,304.9 2.9 825 14 5.0 13

Utah

 1,231.6 3.6 696 36 5.5 5

Vermont

 305.2 -0.2 699 35 4.0 32

Virginia

 3,686.6 1.0 857 11 5.0 13

Washington

 2,976.5 2.1 878 8 6.7 1

West Virginia

 713.8 0.3 623 47 4.0 32

Wisconsin

 2,802.3 -0.1 705 33 2.6 47

Wyoming

 284.3 3.6 734 27 4.1 25

Puerto Rico

 1,008.0 -1.1 453 (5) 2.5 (5)

Virgin Islands

 45.0 0.7 682 (5) -0.3 (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: June 5, 2008