Average Weekly Wages in Delaware: Fourth Quarter 2006 (PDF)

New Castle County ranks 48th highest in wages in the nation

The average weekly wage in New Castle County, Delaware, was $1,004 in the fourth quarter of 2006, 5.7 percent lower than it was one year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Regional Commissioner Sheila Watkins noted that New Castle County ranked 48th in wage level in the United States despite experiencing the largest percentage decline among the 325 largest counties nationwide (those with 75,000 or more jobs as measured by 2005 annual average employment).  New Castle County’s average weekly wage was $143 higher than the national average in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the two counties in Delaware with employment below 75,000.  Both Kent and Sussex Counties recorded average weekly wages lower than the national average, at $687 and $628, respectively.  (See chart 1.)

Wage Levels in the Nation’s Largest Counties

The national average weekly wage in the fourth quarter of 2006 was $861.  Average weekly wages were higher than that for the nation in 105 of the largest 325 U.S. counties.  New York County, N.Y., held the top position among the highest-paid large counties with an average weekly wage of $1,781.  Santa Clara, Calif., was second with an average weekly wage of $1,569, followed by Fairfield, Conn. ($1,515), Suffolk, Mass. ($1,481), and San Francisco, Calif. ($1,460).  (See table 1.)

There were 219 counties with an average weekly wage below the national average in the fourth quarter of 2006.  The lowest average weekly wages were reported in Cameron County, Texas ($527), followed by the counties of Hidalgo, Texas ($542), Yakima, Wash. ($570), Webb, Texas ($571), and Horry, S.C. ($578).

Over the year, the national average weekly wage rose by 4.2 percent.  Among the largest counties, Rockingham, N.H., led the nation in average weekly wage growth with an increase of 18.0 percent from the fourth quarter of 2005.  Sedgwick, Kan., and Trumbull, Ohio, were second in wage growth (14.0 percent each), followed by the counties of Travis, Texas (10.9 percent) and Waukesha, Wis. (10.4 percent).

Eight counties experienced over-the-year declines in average weekly wages.  New Castle, Del., had the largest decrease (-5.7 percent), followed by the counties of Elkhart, Ind. (-5.3 percent), Orleans, La. (-4.4 percent), York, Pa. (-4.3 percent), and Harrison, Miss. (-2.4 percent).

Average Weekly Wages by State

The weekly wage in Delaware averaged $896 in the fourth quarter of 2006, $35 above the national level, ranking 10th highest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  In fact, 9 of the 13 jurisdictions in which the average weekly wage surpassed the U.S. average fell in a contiguous band along the east coast stretching from New Hampshire to Virginia.  The five highest wage levels in the nation were in the District of Columbia ($1,424), New York ($1,104), Connecticut ($1,101), Massachusetts ($1,072), and New Jersey ($1,055).  (See table 2.)  Average weekly wages in this group were 23 percent or more above that for the nation.  During this same period, four states had wage levels averaging less than 75 percent of national earnings:  South Dakota ($614), Montana ($625), Mississippi ($630), and North Dakota ($643). 

Wyoming recorded wage growth of 11.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the fourth quarter of 2006, higher than any other state.  New Hampshire was second with 8.1-percent growth, followed by New Mexico, which averaged 7.1 percent.  Delaware was the only state to experience an over-the-year decline in average weekly wages, down 4.1 percent since the fourth quarter of 2005.

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 reports submitted by employers subject to state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) laws.  The 8.9 million employer reports cover 135.9 million full- and part-time workers.  The average weekly wage is computed by dividing the total quarterly payroll of employees covered by UI programs by the average monthly number of these employees.  This number 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.  Employment and Wages Annual Averages, 2004 is available for sale from the United States Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA, 15250 or by calling 1-866-512-1800.  The bulletin is now available in a portable document format (PDF) on the BLS Web site at www.bls.gov/cew/cewbultn04.htm.  Also, the quarterly press release, County Employment and Wages, presents employment and wage data for the largest counties in the U.S. and is available at www.bls.gov/cew/.
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.