Internet: www.bls.gov/ro3/ PLS - 4477
FOR RELEASE:
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2008
INFORMATION: Gerald Perrins
(215) 597-3282
MEDIA CONTACT: Sheila Watkins
(215) 861-5600

County Employment and Wages in Virginia: First Quarter 2008 (PDF)

Arlington County ranked 9th highest in wages in the nation

In the first quarter of 2008, Arlington County had an average weekly wage level of $1,473, the highest among Virginia’s 12 counties with employment of 75,000 or more.  Fairfax County was a close second with an average weekly wage of $1,376, followed by Alexandria City ($1,180), Richmond City ($1,114), and Loudoun County ($1,105).  The average weekly wage in Newport News City increased by 4.6 percent over the year, the largest advance among Virginia’s large counties.  Richmond City’s 4.4-percent wage growth was the second fastest in the Commonwealth.  Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that among Virginia’s 12 large counties, 6 recorded wages above the national average of $905, and 7 had wage growth above the national rate of 2.4 percent.  (See table 1.)

Virginia’s counties had some of the highest average weekly wages in the country.  Arlington County ranked 9th; Fairfax County, 12th; and Alexandria City, 25th when wage levels were compared for all 334 large counties nationwide, placing them in the top 10 percent in the United States.  Counties in Virginia also recorded high rates of wage growth compared to other large counties in the nation: Newport News City ranked 42nd, followed by the cities of Richmond and Alexandria which ranked 48th and 62nd, respectively.  These three counties were among the top one-fifth of large counties nationwide in wage growth.

Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 122 counties in Virginia with employment below 75,000.  All but 7 (Goochland, Surry, King George, Falls Church City, Manassas City, Fairfax City, and Louisa) of these 122 counties had average weekly wages below the national level.  (See table 2.)

County Wage Levels

Among Virginia’s 12 large counties, 6 had average weekly wages exceeding the national level of $905 in the first quarter of 2008─Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria City, Richmond City, Loudoun, and Henrico.  Wages in these six large counties, four of which are located in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. metropolitan area, ranged from 10 percent higher than the national average in Henrico to 63 percent higher in Arlington.

At the other end of the wage spectrum, Chesapeake City ($672) and Virginia Beach City ($683) reported the lowest average weekly wage levels among the large counties in the Commonwealth.  (See chart 1.)  These two counties, both of which are located in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Va.-N.C. metropolitan area, had wages in the bottom fifth of the national ranking, at 304th and 291st, respectively.  Average weekly wages in the four remaining large areas (Prince William County, Chesterfield County, Newport News City, and Norfolk City) were all below the national level.

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).  Of the 10 counties with the highest wages in the United States, 4 were located in the greater New York metropolitan area (New York, N.Y., Fairfield, Conn., Somerset, N.J., and Hudson, N.J.), 3 others were located in or around the San Francisco area (San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Mateo, all in California), and 2 more were located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Va.).  Rounding out the top 10 was Suffolk County, Mass., part of the Boston metropolitan area.  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).

County Wage Changes

Of Virginia’s 12 large counties, 7 recorded wage growth above the national increase of 2.4 percent from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008.  As mentioned, Newport News City’s 4.6-percent wage gain was the largest increase in the Commonwealth and 42nd in the nation, followed by Richmond City’s 4.4-percent gain (48th).  The cities of Alexandria and Virginia Beach and the counties of Chesterfield, Prince William, and Loudoun also had growth rates above the national average, ranging from 2.5 to 4.0 percent. 

Henrico County and Norfolk City were the only two counties in the Commonwealth to have over-the-year declines in wages in the first quarter of 2008, down 0.8 and 0.2 percent, respectively.  Three other Virginia counties posted wage growth rates below that for the nation—Fairfax, Chesapeake City, and Arlington—ranging from 0.4 to 1.7 percent.  All five of these counties ranked among the bottom one-third of large U.S. counties in wage growth.

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 Virginia’s smaller counties

As mentioned, all but 7 of the 122 counties in Virginia with employment below 75,000 had average weekly wages below the national level.  Highland County reported the lowest wage level at $447.  The highest wage among Virginia’s 122 small counties was Goochland County’s $1,525, followed by Surry County’s $1,506.

When all 134 counties in Virginia are considered, only 9 had average wages below $500 per week.  Nine counties had wages above $1,100, while five others had wages ranging from $901 to $1,100.  Most of the higher-paid counties were located in the Washington and Richmond metropolitan areas.  Eighty-seven, or over three-fifths, of the counties in Virginia reported average weekly wages from $501 to $700 in the first quarter of 2008.  (See chart 1.)

State Average Weekly Wages

At the state level, the average weekly wage in Virginia was $918, which was $13 above the nationwide level and ranked 11th highest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  (See table 3.)  Nationally, 8 of the 12 areas with above-average weekly wage levels were located in a contiguous band along the east coast, stretching from Massachusetts to Virginia.  The five highest average wages at the state level were in the District of Columbia ($1,488), New York ($1,399), Connecticut ($1,254), Massachusetts ($1,143), and New Jersey ($1,133).  Average weekly wages in this group were 25 percent or more above that for the nation.  At the other end of the scale, seven states had wage levels 75 percent or less of national earnings:  Montana ($625), South Dakota ($632), Mississippi ($634), Idaho ($635), North Dakota ($652), Arkansas ($667), and West Virginia ($679).

Wyoming experienced wage growth of 6.7 percent from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, higher than that of any other state.  North Dakota was second with 6.2-percent growth, followed by South Dakota, averaging 5.2 percent.  Connecticut was the only state to experience an over-the-year wage decline, down 0.6 percent.  Wages in Delaware and New York were virtually unchanged over the year, up just 0.1 percent.  Virginia’s average wage growth of 2.0 percent was below the nation’s 2.4-percent advance.

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 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 134.8 million full- and part-time workers.  The average weekly wage values are computed 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 Note below) and will 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 the 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 CD for enhanced access and usability with the printed booklet containing selected graphic representation of QCEW data; the data tables themselves will be published exclusively in the electronic PDF formats 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 Mid-Atlantic Information Office at 215-597-3282 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET.

QCEW-based news releases issued by other regional offices have been placed at one convenient Web site location, www.bls.gov/cew/cewregional.htm.

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 12 largest counties in Virginia, first quarter 2008(2)
Area Employment Average weekly wage(3)
March 2008 (thousands) Percent change, March 2007-08(5) Average weekly wage National ranking by level(4) Percent change, first quarter 2007-08(5) National ranking by percent change(4)

United States (6)

 134,761.1 0.4 $905 -- 2.4 --

Virginia

 3,644.6 1.0 901 10 4.4 27

Alexandria City, Va.

 99.8 0.3 1,180 25 4.0 62

Arlington, Va.

 153.1 1.0 1,473 9 1.7 224

Chesapeake City, Va.

 99.3 -1.3 672 304 1.4 233

Chesterfield, Va.

 120.1 -0.8 790 180 3.3 112

Fairfax, Va.

 585.0 0.8 1,376 12 0.4 279

Henrico, Va.

 179.6 0.4 998 56 -0.8 309

Loudoun, Va.

 130.2 1.9 1,105 39 2.5 177

Newport News City, Va.

 99.5 -0.1 794 177 4.6 42

Norfolk City, Va.

 143.6 -0.7 826 144 -0.2 297

Prince William, Va.

 102.6 0.2 761 210 2.6 163

Richmond City, Va.

 157.8 0.7 1,114 37 4.4 48

Virginia Beach City, Va.

 172.7 -0.7 683 291 3.8 73

Footnotes:
(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.
(7) Data do not meet BLS or State agency disclosure standards.
Table 2. Covered(1) employment and wages in the United States and all of the counties in Virginia, first quarter 2008(2)
Area Employment March 2008 (thousands) Average weekly wage (3)

United States (4)

 134,761.1 $905

Virginia

 3,653.5 918

Accomack

 12.8 558

Albemarle

 50.0 847

Alleghany

 4.4 590

Amelia

 2.9 554

Amherst

 9.7 610

Appomattox

 3.4 549

Arlington

 153.1 1,473

Augusta

 25.5 658

Bath

 2.3 622

Bedford

 15.3 605

Bland

 2.0 709

Botetourt

 10.9 644

Brunswick

 4.9 568

Buchanan

 8.0 739

Buckingham

 3.3 576

Campbell

 15.6 589

Caroline

 5.7 670

Carroll

 6.4 480

Charles City

 1.6 682

Charlotte

 2.8 513

Chesterfield

 120.1 790

Clarke

 4.2 691

Craig

 0.7 515

Culpeper

 15.5 662

Cumberland

 1.4 529

Dickenson

 3.7 666

Dinwiddie

 8.6 698

Essex

 4.1 535

Fairfax County

 585.0 1,376

Fauquier

 21.5 739

Floyd

 2.8 460

Fluvanna

 4.1 617

Franklin

 14.7 523

Frederick

 23.6 714

Giles

 4.7 692

Gloucester

 10.0 549

Goochland

 10.7 1,525

Grayson

 2.4 476

Greene

 3.0 564

Greensville

 4.8 610

Halifax

 12.6 586

Hanover

 45.8 701

Henrico

 179.6 998

Henry

 15.8 552

Highland

 0.5 447

Isle of Wight

 12.0 698

James City

 26.9 648

King and Queen

 1.0 697

King George

 9.2 1,203

King William

 3.8 713

Lancaster

 4.9 553

Lee

 5.5 537

Loudoun

 130.2 1,105

Louisa

 7.1 949

Lunenburg

 2.8 506

Madison

 3.1 532

Mathews

 1.7 451

Mecklenburg

 13.1 518

Middlesex

 3.4 505

Montgomery

 40.0 660

Nelson

 3.7 523

New Kent

 3.8 633

Northampton

 4.9 566

Northumberland

 2.5 519

Nottoway

 5.9 554

Orange

 9.2 590

Page

 5.8 506

Patrick

 5.2 468

Pittsylvania

 11.6 542

Powhatan

 6.4 638

Prince Edward

 9.0 528

Prince George

 11.3 847

Prince William

 102.6 761

Pulaski

 11.3 669

Rappahannock

 1.5 829

Richmond County

 3.2 568

Roanoke County

 35.5 647

Rockbridge

 6.8 534

Rockingham

 29.4 659

Russell

 7.4 585

Scott

 5.0 514

Shenandoah

 14.4 562

Smyth

 12.8 559

Southampton

 4.3 576

Spotsylvania

 30.1 635

Stafford

 34.6 810

Surry

 2.1 1,506

Sussex

 3.7 594

Tazewell

 17.8 545

Warren

 11.9 602

Washington

 20.1 635

Westmoreland

 3.7 503

Wise

 14.3 634

Wythe

 12.4 535

York

 21.4 619

Alexandria City

 99.8 1,180

Bedford City

 3.7 601

Bristol City

 13.0 596

Buena Vista City

 2.4 519

Charlottesville City

 36.3 813

Chesapeake City

 99.3 672

Colonial Heights City

 10.5 497

Covington City

 4.1 784

Danville City

 28.1 590

Emporia City

 4.1 488

Fairfax City

 20.4 963

Falls Church City

 12.3 1,102

Franklin City

 4.3 509

Fredericksburg City

 26.4 665

Galax City

 6.8 479

Hampton City

 59.5 761

Harrisonburg City

 31.3 636

Hopewell City

 8.3 877

Lexington City

 5.1 624

Lynchburg City

 55.0 744

Manassas City

 24.2 1,025

Manassas Park City

 3.5 808

Martinsville City

 12.3 518

Newport News City

 99.5 794

Norfolk City

 143.6 826

Norton City

 4.2 672

Petersburg City

 14.6 662

Poquoson City

 2.0 516

Portsmouth City

 43.5 799

Radford City

 6.7 743

Richmond City

 157.8 1,114

Roanoke City

 70.4 703

Salem City

 22.5 784

Staunton City

 12.1 549

Suffolk City

 25.5 700

Virginia Beach City

 172.7 683

Waynesboro City

 10.7 644

Williamsburg City

 15.0 603

Winchester City

 27.1 728

Footnotes:
(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, first quarter 2008(2)
State Employment Average weekly wage (3)
March 2008 (thousands) Percent change,
March 2007-08		 Average weekly wage National ranking by level Percent change,
first quarter 2006-07		 National ranking by percent change

United States(4)

 134,761.1 0.4 $905 - 2.4 -

Alabama

 1,947.0 -0.2 740 34 3.2 27

Alaska

 303.0 1.0 866 16 4.2 11

Arizona

 2,639.7 -1.3 820 22 2.4 34

Arkansas

 1,178.4 -0.1 667 46 4.1 12

California

 15,561.5 0.1 1008 6 2.1 41

Colorado

 2,300.0 1.7 920 10 3.6 16

Connecticut

 1,683.9 1.2 1254 3 -0.6 51

Delaware

 418.4 0.5 987 7 0.1 49

District of Columbia

 680.8 1.1 1488 1 4.3 9

Florida

 7,918.6 -2.2 777 26 1.8 43

Georgia

 4,060.9 0.1 847 20 1.3 44

Hawaii

 628.1 0.2 773 28 3.5 19

Idaho

 645.3 0.2 635 48 0.3 48

Illinois

 5,796.1 0.1 980 8 2.6 33

Indiana

 2,858.7 -0.7 757 33 2.4 34

Iowa

 1,469.8 0.9 710 40 3.6 16

Kansas

 1,363.2 1.0 737 35 2.4 34

Kentucky

 1,794.0 0.1 714 39 2.4 34

Louisiana

 1,887.3 1.3 765 30 4.8 4

Maine

 584.1 0.5 701 42 3.5 19

Maryland

 2,530.3 0.0 963 9 2.8 31

Massachusetts

 3,203.1 0.9 1143 4 3.3 23

Michigan

 4,058.8 -1.8 857 18 0.9 47

Minnesota

 2,644.8 0.6 908 12 4.0 13

Mississippi

 1,138.2 0.8 634 49 3.3 23

Missouri

 2,708.0 0.0 768 29 3.5 19

Montana

 432.4 0.9 625 51 4.3 9

Nebraska

 912.2 1.4 687 44 3.2 27

Nevada

 1,266.3 -1.2 839 21 4.7 5

New Hampshire

 621.2 0.3 863 17 3.4 22

New Jersey

 3,939.9 0.5 1133 5 3.3 23

New Mexico

 823.8 0.6 717 38 4.7 5

New York

 8,555.0 1.3 1399 2 0.1 49

North Carolina

 4,069.1 0.9 788 24 1.3 44

North Dakota

 343.3 2.6 652 47 6.2 2

Ohio

 5,189.1 -1.0 798 23 1.0 46

Oklahoma

 1,560.0 1.6 707 41 4.7 5

Oregon

 1,713.1 0.3 776 27 2.9 30

Pennsylvania

 5,608.8 0.5 869 15 2.4 34

Rhode Island

 464.8 -1.5 851 19 2.3 39

South Carolina

 1,888.3 0.1 695 43 2.8 31

South Dakota

 389.4 2.0 632 50 5.2 3

Tennessee

 2,746.4 0.6 761 31 3.3 23

Texas

 10,420.8 2.8 903 13 3.6 16

Utah

 1,220.2 1.4 718 37 3.2 27

Vermont

 300.8 -0.3 735 36 4.4 8

Virginia

 3,653.5 0.2 918 11 2.0 42

Washington

 2,928.6 2.1 899 14 3.7 15

West Virginia

 700.3 0.3 679 45 4.0 13

Wisconsin

 2,734.3 0.2 760 32 2.2 40

Wyoming

 277.2 2.9 779 25 6.7 1

Puerto Rico

 1,004.5 -1.6 489 (5) 2.7 (5)

Virgin Islands

 46.5 1.1 708 (5) 3.4 (5)

Footnotes:
(1) Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs. These 328 U.S. counties comprise 71.1 percent of the total workers in the U.S.
(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.
Chart 1.  Average weekly wages by county in Virginia, first quarter 2008

Map of average weekly wages by county in Virginia, first quarter 2008

enlarge

 

Last Modified Date: November 25, 2008