January 12, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Counties with most rapid pay growth, second quarter 2004

Among the Nation’s largest counties, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, which includes Boston, led the nation in growth in average weekly wages in the second quarter of 2004, with an over-the-year increase of 11.8 percent.

[Chart data—TXT]

Pierce County, Washington, which includes the city of Tacoma, was second with 9.8 percent growth. The counties with the next highest rates of pay growth were Lee, Florida (in southwestern Florida), Spartanburg, South Carolina (which borders North Carolina), and Rock Island, Illinois (which borders Iowa).

In the U.S. overall, average weekly wages were 3.1 percent higher in the second quarter of 2004 than in the second quarter of 2003.

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 with employment levels of at least 75,000. Find more about pay and employment in large counties in "County Employment and Wages: Second Quarter 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05–31.