| Internet: www.bls.gov/ro5/ | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: |
| GENERAL INFORMATION: (312) 353-1880 | Friday, November 21, 2008 |
| MEDIA CONTACT: Paul LaPorte | |
| (312) 353-1138 |
County Employment and Wages in Indiana, First Quarter 2008
The average weekly wage in St. Joseph County increased 6.2 percent from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, the largest increase among Indiana’s eight counties with employment of 75,000 or more (as measured by 2007 annual average employment). Tippecanoe County had the second-highest wage growth at 4.4 percent, followed by both Hamilton and Vanderburgh Counties at 3.7 percent. Marion County had the highest average weekly wage level in the State at $953, followed by the counties of Hamilton ($897), Tippecanoe ($765), and Lake ($752). (See table 1.) Regional Commissioner Jay A. Mousa noted that six large counties had wage growth above the 2.4 percent national increase and only one county, Marion, had wages above the national average of $905.
Among the eight largest counties in Indiana, employment in March 2008 was highest in Marion County (575,000) and lowest in Tippecanoe County (75,300). Six of the eight large counties in the State reported declines in employment levels from March 2007 to March 2008. Only Hamilton and Marion Counties increased employment, up 1.7 and 0.3 percent, respectively. Nationally, employment rose 0.4 percent during this time period.
Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 84 counties in Indiana with employment below 75,000. Eighty-one of these smaller counties had average weekly wages below the national average. (See table 2.)
Wage Levels in Large Counties
The average weekly wage levels in the counties of Marion and Hamilton placed in the top half of the national rankings among the 334 largest counties in the United States. Marion County’s average weekly wage ($953) ranked 67th and Hamilton’s ($897) ranked 97th. The remaining six of the state’s eight counties with employment over 75,000 had wages in the bottom half of the national rankings: Elkhart ($703/279th), Allen ($726/256th), Vanderburgh ($728/254th), St. Joseph ($740/241st), Lake ($752/219th), and Tippecanoe ($765/205th).
The national average weekly wage in the first quarter of 2008 was $905. Average weekly wages were higher than the national average in 92 of the largest 334 U.S. counties. New York, N.Y., held the top position among the highest-paid large counties with an average weekly wage of $2,805. Fairfield, Conn., was second with an average weekly wage of $1,905, followed by Somerset, N.J. ($1,765), Suffolk, Mass. ($1,708), and San Francisco, Calif. ($1,639).
Nationwide, there were 241 counties with an average weekly wage below the national average in the first quarter of 2008. The lowest average weekly wage was reported in Cameron County, Texas ($523), followed by the counties of Hidalgo, Texas ($532), Horry, S.C. ($534), Webb, Texas ($554), and Yakima, Wash. ($587).
Wage Changes in Large Counties
Six of Indiana’s eight large counties recorded wage growth above the national increase of 2.4 percent from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008. (See table 1.) St. Joseph’s 6.2-percent wage gain was the largest increase in the State and ranked 13th in the nation. Tippecanoe, at 4.4 percent, placed 48th. Elkhart County recorded the smallest wage increase in the State at 0.1 percent and ranked 290th among the nation’s largest counties.
Among the largest counties, Westmoreland, Pa., led the nation in growth in average weekly wages, with an increase of 14.9 percent from the first quarter of 2007. Williamson, Texas, was second with growth of 10.8 percent, followed by the counties of Somerset, N.J. (9.0 percent), San Luis Obispo, Calif. (8.3 percent), and Jefferson, Texas (7.9 percent).
Thirty-four large counties experienced over-the-year declines in average weekly wages. Trumbull, Ohio, had the largest decrease (-17.2 percent), followed by the counties of Saginaw, Mich. (-4.4 percent), Rockingham, N.H. (-3.9 percent), Fairfield, Conn. (-3.8 percent), and Mecklenburg, N.C. (-3.4 percent).
Wage Levels in Indiana’s Smaller Counties
Eighty-one of the smaller counties in Indiana with employment below 75,000 had average weekly wages below the national level of $905. The exceptions were Martin ($1,099), Bartholomew ($957), and Posey ($912). Brown County reported the lowest average weekly wage at $434 in the first quarter of 2008 followed by Crawford at $482. (See table 2.)
When all 92 counties in Indiana were considered, 38 counties in the State reported average weekly wages under $600, 32 reported average weekly wages between $600 and $699, and 12 had average weekly wages between $700 and $799. Ten counties had average weekly wages of $800 or more and two (Hamilton and Marion) were in the Indianapolis-Carmel Metropolitan Area.
State Average Weekly Wages
At the state level, the average weekly wage in Indiana was $757, $148 below the nationwide figure, ranking 33rd 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 ($1,488), New York ($1,399), Connecticut ($1,254), Massachusetts ($1,143) and New Jersey ($1,133). All had wages at least 25 percent higher than the national average. Six states had average earnings of less than 75 percent of the national average: Montana ($625), South Dakota ($632), Mississippi ($634), Idaho ($635), North Dakota ($652), and Arkansas ($667).
Indiana experienced wage growth of 2.4 percent from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, matching the increase nationwide and ranking 34th among the 50 States and District of Columbia. Wage gains in the neighboring states of Ohio (1.0 percent), and Michigan (0.9 percent) were lower. Illinois, on-the-other hand experienced a similar gain (2.6 percent). (See table 3.) Nationwide, the highest over-the-year wage gains in the first quarter of 2008 were recorded by Wyoming (6.7 percent), North Dakota (6.2 percent), and South Dakota (5.2 percent). The only state to report a decline in average weekly wages was Connecticut, where wages were down 0.6 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 summaries of employment and total pay of workers covered by state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) legislation and provided by State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). The 9.1 million employer reports cover 135.4 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. As with the 2005 edition, this edition includes the data on a CD for enhanced access and usability with the printed booklet containing selected graphic representation of QCEW data; the data tables themselves are published exclusively in electronic formats as PDF. The 2006 bulletin is available in a 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 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET.
TECHNICAL NOTE
QCEW data are not designed as a time series. QCEW data are simply the sums of individual establishment records reflecting the number of establishments that exist in a county or industry at a point in time. Establishments can move in or out of a county or industry for a number of reasonssome reflecting economic events, others reflecting administrative changes.
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. These potential differences result from the states’ 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.
| Area | Employment March 2008 | Average weekly wage (3) |
|---|---|---|
United States (4) |
134,761,100 | $905 |
Indiana -- Statewide |
2,858,717 | 757 |
Adams |
13,247 | 570 |
Allen |
178,246 | 726 |
Bartholomew |
44,015 | 957 |
Benton |
2,387 | 531 |
Blackford |
3,795 | 550 |
Boone |
18,647 | 676 |
Brown |
2,855 | 434 |
Carroll |
5,204 | 536 |
Cass |
15,456 | 583 |
Clark |
47,585 | 660 |
Clay |
6,576 | 517 |
Clinton |
10,798 | 648 |
Crawford |
2,124 | 482 |
Daviess |
11,087 | 549 |
De Kalb |
19,464 | 760 |
Dearborn |
14,516 | 621 |
Decatur |
12,242 | 659 |
Delaware |
47,377 | 601 |
Dubois |
28,176 | 642 |
Elkhart |
120,214 | 703 |
Fayette |
7,394 | 679 |
Floyd |
29,048 | 658 |
Fountain |
5,713 | 550 |
Franklin |
4,293 | 537 |
Fulton |
6,528 | 601 |
Gibson |
15,936 | 830 |
Grant |
26,554 | 630 |
Greene |
7,452 | 592 |
Hamilton |
109,433 | 897 |
Hancock |
19,511 | 767 |
Harrison |
10,997 | 569 |
Hendricks |
46,873 | 629 |
Henry |
13,007 | 611 |
Howard |
38,577 | 852 |
Huntington |
14,814 | 591 |
Jackson |
19,806 | 673 |
Jasper |
12,137 | 650 |
Jay |
8,097 | 608 |
Jefferson |
12,667 | 642 |
Jennings |
7,793 | 608 |
Johnson |
42,400 | 589 |
Knox |
16,669 | 580 |
Kosciusko |
35,050 | 851 |
La Porte |
43,995 | 646 |
Lagrange |
11,789 | 603 |
Lake |
192,721 | 752 |
Lawrence |
13,502 | 624 |
Madison |
38,756 | 592 |
Marion |
574,952 | 953 |
Marshall |
18,638 | 598 |
Martin |
6,704 | 1,099 |
Miami |
10,211 | 588 |
Monroe |
60,930 | 669 |
Montgomery |
15,703 | 743 |
Morgan |
14,769 | 598 |
Newton |
3,903 | 549 |
Noble |
18,111 | 614 |
Ohio |
1,614 | 590 |
Orange |
7,756 | 550 |
Owen |
5,092 | 594 |
Parke |
3,287 | 494 |
Perry |
6,198 | 600 |
Pike |
3,009 | 807 |
Porter |
56,499 | 718 |
Posey |
8,620 | 912 |
Pulaski |
4,520 | 649 |
Putnam |
12,249 | 562 |
Randolph |
7,058 | 571 |
Ripley |
12,467 | 714 |
Rush |
5,018 | 579 |
Scott |
7,000 | 556 |
Shelby |
16,243 | 664 |
Spencer |
6,486 | 694 |
St. Joseph |
122,138 | 740 |
Starke |
4,274 | 494 |
Steuben |
13,689 | 545 |
Sullivan |
5,329 | 534 |
Switzerland |
2,301 | 549 |
Tippecanoe |
75,320 | 765 |
Tipton |
4,152 | 667 |
Union |
1,365 | 551 |
Vanderburgh |
106,546 | 728 |
Vermillion |
4,750 | 878 |
Vigo |
51,002 | 651 |
Wabash |
12,488 | 625 |
Warren |
1,941 | 576 |
Warrick |
14,202 | 740 |
Washington |
5,929 | 547 |
Wayne |
32,691 | 647 |
Wells |
10,870 | 598 |
White |
8,224 | 585 |
Whitley |
12,052 | 619 |
