Employment rose in the four largest counties in Utah from March 2011 to March 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. (Large counties are defined as those with employment of 75,000 or more as measured by 2011 annual average employment.) Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that Davis County and Utah County experienced the fastest growth, each up 4.2 percent over the year. All four counties registered employment gains exceeding the national average of 1.8 percent.

Nationally, employment increased in 293 of the 328 largest U.S. counties from March 2011 to March 2012. Gregg, Texas, posted the largest increase with a gain of 6.0 percent over the year. Benton, Wash., experienced the largest over-the-year decrease in employment with a loss of 3.9 percent.

Among the four largest counties in Utah, employment was highest in Salt Lake County (578,700) and lowest in Weber (89,800). Together, the four largest counties accounted for 79.2 percent of total employment within the state. Nationwide, the 328 large counties made up 71.1 percent of total U.S. employment.

All four of Utah’s large counties experienced wage growth that exceeded the 5.4-percent national gain from the first quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012; however, the counties’ average weekly wage levels were all below the $984 national average. Davis County recorded the fastest rate of wage growth (8.2 percent) while Salt Lake County had the highest average weekly wage ($911) among Utah’s large counties. (See table 1.)

Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 25 counties in Utah with employment below 75,000. All of these smaller counties had average weekly wages below the national average. (See table 2.)

Large county wage changes

As mentioned, Davis County had the largest wage gain at 8.2 percent, placing it 29th in the national ranking. (See table 1.) Wage growth in Utah County, at 6.5 percent, ranked 93rd. Salt Lake and Weber Counties followed closely with increases of 6.4 and 6.2 percent, respectively, and ranked 100th and 122nd.

Among the 328 largest counties in the U.S., 323 had over-the-year increases in average weekly wages in the first quarter of 2012. Williamson, Texas, ranked first in average weekly wage growth with an increase of 27.4 percent. New York, N.Y., had the largest average weekly wage decrease with a loss of 6.3 percent.

Large county average weekly wages

At $911, Salt Lake County’s average weekly wage ranked 146th among the 328 largest counties in the United States in the first quarter of 2012. The three remaining large counties in Utah had average weekly wages that placed them in the bottom quartile of the national ranking—Davis ($763, 275th); Utah ($724, 303rd); and Weber ($682, 316th).

Nationally, weekly wages were higher than the average of $984 in 95 of the 328 largest U.S. counties. New York, N.Y., held the top position among the highest-paid large counties with an average weekly wage of $2,464. Santa Clara, Calif., was second at $1,957, followed by Fairfield, Conn. ($1,942), and Somerset, N.J. ($1,881). Among the 232 large counties with an average weekly wage below the U.S. average in the first quarter of 2012, Horry, S.C. ($559) reported the lowest wage.

Average weekly wages in Utah's smaller counties

Each of the 25 counties in Utah with employment below 75,000 had average weekly wages lower than the national average. Uintah County’s wage of $918 was the highest among the small counties, while Piutes’s wage was the lowest ($478). (See table 2.)

When all 29 counties in Utah were considered, 14 reported average weekly wages under $600, 6 reported wages from $600 to $699, 4 posted wages from $700 to $799, and 5 had wages above $800. (See chart 1.) Most of the counties with average weekly wages above $600 were located in the northern half of the state while counties with wages under $600 were predominantly located in the southern half.

Additional statistics and other information

Quarterly data for states have been included in this release in table 3. For additional information about quarterly employment and wages data, please read the Technical Note or visit the QCEW Web site at www.bls.gov/cew/.

Employment and Wages Annual Averages Online features comprehensive information by detailed industry on establishments, employment, and wages for the nation and all states. The 2010 edition of this publication, which was published in November 2011, contains selected data produced by Business Employment Dynamics (BED) on job gains and losses, as well as selected data from the first quarter 2011 version of the national news release. Tables and additional content from Employment and Wages Annual Averages 2010 are now available online at www.bls.gov/cew/cewbultn10.htm. The 2011 edition of Employment and Wages Annual Averages Online will be available later in 2012.

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.

Technical Note

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 9.2 million employer reports cover 130.2 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 and may not match the data contained on the Bureau's Web site.

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 reasons—some 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.

Table 1. Covered (1) employment and wages in the United States and the 4 largest counties in Utah, first quarter 2012 (2)

Area	Employment			Average Weekly Wage (3)
	March 2012 (thousands)	Percent change, March 2011-12 (4)	National ranking by percent change (5)	Average weekly wage	National ranking by level (5)	Percent change, first quarter 2011-12 (4)	National ranking by percent change (5)
United States (6)	130,175.4	1.8	--	$984	--	5.4	--
Utah	1,193.1	3.2	--	799	38	6.1	20
Davis, Utah	105.0	4.2	10	763	275	8.2	29
Salt Lake, Utah	578.7	3.5	28	911	146	6.4	100
Utah, Utah	171.4	4.2	10	724	303	6.5	93
Weber, Utah	89.8	2.1	115	682	316	6.2	122
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) Percent changes were computed from quarterly employment and pay data adjusted for noneconomic county reclassifications. (5) Ranking does not include the county of San Juan, Puerto Rico. (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 counties in Utah, first quarter 2012 (2)

Area	Employment March 2012	Average weekly wage (3)
United States (4)	130,175,438	$984
Utah	1,193,091	799
Beaver	2,456	582
Box Elder	15,920	661
Cache	47,147	589
Carbon	9,016	747
Daggett	313	673
Davis	104,969	763
Duchesne	8,728	899
Emery	3,293	822
Garfield	1,885	505
Grand	4,598	550
Iron	14,608	536
Juab	2,972	577
Kane	2,636	548
Millard	4,253	673
Morgan	1,706	763
Piute	245	478
Rich	475	524
Salt Lake	578,700	911
San Juan	3,949	626
Sanpete	6,732	525
Sevier	7,795	573
Summit	25,280	653
Tooele	15,757	812
Uintah	14,750	918
Utah	171,350	724
Wasatch	5,944	585
Washington	47,041	573
Wayne	758	515
Weber	89,815	682
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 2012 (2)

State	Employment		Average weekly wage (3)
	March 2012 (thousands)	Percent change, March 2011-12	Average weekly wage	National ranking by level	Percent change, first quarter 2011-12	National ranking by percent change
United States (4)	130,175.4	1.8	$984	--	5.4	--
Alabama	1,822.8	0.8	808	35	5.6	32
Alaska	316.4	1.9	973	15	6.7	9
Arizona	2,437.2	2.1	887	21	5.7	29
Arkansas	1,151.5	1.5	747	47	4.6	46
California	14,670.6	2.0	1,125	6	5.5	33
Colorado	2,230.4	2.4	1,003	13	5.4	36
Connecticut	1,613.1	1.5	1,330	3	3.8	50
Delaware	398.8	0.8	1,071	7	4.2	48
District of Columbia	712.1	1.3	1,602	1	4.0	49
Florida	7,377.3	2.0	837	30	5.4	36
Georgia	3,815.5	1.3	931	17	5.2	41
Hawaii	600.3	0.9	834	32	5.7	29
Idaho	596.7	1.1	692	50	5.0	43
Illinois	5,557.5	1.5	1,061	9	5.9	25
Indiana	2,777.0	2.2	822	34	6.3	17
Iowa	1,448.3	1.9	784	40	6.4	14
Kansas	1,314.2	1.8	803	37	7.2	5
Kentucky	1,750.3	1.9	785	39	6.4	14
Louisiana	1,863.1	1.2	836	31	4.9	44
Maine	561.4	0.5	757	46	4.7	45
Maryland	2,492.4	1.7	1,071	7	6.0	23
Massachusetts	3,178.7	1.7	1,227	5	5.7	29
Michigan	3,865.8	2.6	920	20	5.5	33
Minnesota	2,586.3	2.1	989	14	6.1	20
Mississippi	1,083.5	0.8	687	51	5.9	25
Missouri	2,593.7	1.2	838	29	6.5	12
Montana	419.5	1.8	706	48	7.8	4
Nebraska	905.3	2.1	765	44	6.1	20
Nevada	1,118.4	1.4	846	28	5.5	33
New Hampshire	602.1	1.0	923	19	5.4	36
New Jersey	3,749.0	1.5	1,228	4	5.9	25
New Mexico	779.7	0.4	782	41	5.8	28
New York	8,479.4	1.7	1,357	2	-0.8	51
North Carolina	3,874.9	1.7	869	23	5.3	39
North Dakota	397.4	9.0	857	25	14.6	1
Ohio	4,967.8	2.0	873	22	6.6	11
Oklahoma	1,525.5	2.0	806	36	9.4	2
Oregon	1,613.0	1.4	864	24	6.4	14
Pennsylvania	5,531.1	1.2	960	16	7.1	7
Rhode Island	443.5	1.1	931	17	8.0	3
South Carolina	1,797.7	1.7	764	45	6.0	23
South Dakota	390.4	2.1	703	49	6.7	9
Tennessee	2,636.7	2.4	847	27	6.8	8
Texas	10,605.2	2.6	1,013	11	7.2	5
Utah	1,193.1	3.2	799	38	6.1	20
Vermont	296.6	1.5	774	42	4.6	46
Virginia	3,586.3	1.4	1,019	10	5.3	39
Washington	2,831.9	1.9	1,009	12	6.5	12
West Virginia	705.5	2.4	768	43	6.2	18
Wisconsin	2,639.0	1.1	827	33	6.2	18
Wyoming	271.8	2.4	850	26	5.2	41
Puerto Rico	931.3	0.6	521	(5)	4.6	(5)
Virgin Islands	42.7	-5.4	722	(5)	-2.0	(5)
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. (5) Data not included in the national ranking.

 

Last Modified Date: October 23, 2012