July 25, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Counties with highest average weekly wages at the end of 2007

Ranked by average weekly wage, New York, New York, held the top position among large counties in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2007 with an average weekly wage of $1,862.

[Chart data—TXT]

Santa Clara, California, was second with an average weekly wage of $1,700, followed by Fairfield, Connecticut ($1,575), Suffolk, Massachusetts ($1,546), and San Francisco, California ($1,529).

The national average weekly wage in the fourth quarter of 2007 was $898. Average weekly wages were higher than the national average in 106 of the largest 328 U.S. counties.

The BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program produced these data, which are preliminary and subject to revision. Find out more in "County Employment and Wages: Fourth Quarter 2007," (PDF) (HTML) news release 08-1014. Data presented here are for all workers covered by State and Federal unemployment insurance programs. Large counties are the 328 U.S. counties with annual average employment levels of 75,000 or more in 2006.