General Information: (312) 353-1880 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Paul LaPorte Thursday, August 30, 2007
http://www.bls.gov/ro5
http://www.bls.gov/cew
AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES IN ILLINOIS: FOURTH QUARTER 2006
The average weekly wage in Rock Island County increased 9.5
percent from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the fourth quarter of
2006, the largest advance among Illinois' 14 counties with 75,000 or
more jobs (as measured by 2005 annual average employment). Lake
County had the second-highest wage growth at 5.3 percent, followed by
Cook County at 5.1 percent. Lake County also had the highest average
weekly wage level in the State at $1,081, followed by Cook County at
$1,051. (See table 1.) Regional Commissioner Jay A. Mousa noted
that while the State's average weekly wage of $928 was above the
national average of $861, 10 of its 14 largest counties reported
wages below that for the nation.
County Wage Levels
The four large counties in Illinois with higher-than-average
wages were Lake, Cook, Du Page, and Rock Island. Average weekly
wages in Lake, Cook, and Du Page were all above $1,000 and Rock County
was close at $996. Wages in these four ranged from $135 to $220
above the national level and placed them in the top one-fifth of the
nationwide ranking of the 325 largest counties. Lake County's wage
ranked 28th highest in the country; Cook's, 36th; Du Page's, 43rd; and
Rock Island's, 49th.
At the lower end of the spectrum, St. Clair and Champaign
Counties reported the lowest average weekly wages in the State at
$691 and $706, respectively, placing these two counties in the lowest
one-fifth of the nationwide ranking at 277th and 269th, respectively.
Across the country, average weekly wages were higher than the
national average in 105 of the largest 325 U.S. counties. New York
County, N.Y., held the top position among the large counties with an
average weekly wage of $1,781. Santa Clara, Calif., was second with
an average wage of $1,569, followed by Fairfield, Conn. ($1,515),
Suffolk, Mass. ($1,481), and San Francisco, Calif. ($1,460).
There were 219 counties with an average weekly wage below the
U.S. average in the fourth quarter of 2006. The lowest average
weekly wage was 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).
County Wage Changes
Six of Illinois' 14 largest counties recorded wage growth above
the national increase of 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006.
(See table 1.) As mentioned, Rock Island County's 9.5-percent wage
gain was the largest increase in the State, ranking 7th highest in
the nation. Average weekly wages in Lake and Cook Counties increased
by 5.3 and 5.1 percent, respectively, and placed 54th and 64th among
the country's 325 largest counties. The other counties with growth
above the national average were Du Page (4.9 percent), Sangamon (4.6
percent), and McLean (4.3 percent). Madison County was the only
large county in the State to record an over-the-year decline in
average weekly wages (-1.2 percent).
Nationally, the county of Rockingham, N.H., led the nation in
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 in the United States 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).
State Average Weekly Wages
At the state level, the average weekly wage in Illinois was
$928, $67 above that for the country, ranking 8th among the 50 states
and the District of Columbia. (See table 2.) 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). Average weekly wages in this group were 22 percent
or more above that for the nation. At the other end of the spectrum,
four states had wage levels averaging less than 75 percent of
national earnings: South Dakota ($614), Montana ($625), Mississippi
($630), and North Dakota ($643). (See table 2.)
The average weekly wage in Illinois increased 4.6 percent from
the fourth quarter of 2005 to the fourth quarter of 2006, ranking it
20th among the 50 states and District of Columbia. Nationally, the
highest over-the-year wage growth in the fourth quarter of 2006 was
recorded by Wyoming (11.3 percent), followed by New Hampshire (8.1
percent). Delaware was the only state to experience a loss in wages
(-4.1 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 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 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 http://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.
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Hurricane Katrina
The employment and wages reported in this news release
reflect the impact of Hurricane Katrina and ongoing labor market
trends in certain counties. The effects of Hurricane Katrina,
which hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, were first apparent
in the September QCEW employment counts and in the wage totals
for the third quarter of 2005. This catastrophic storm continued
to affect monthly employment and quarterly wage totals in parts
of Louisiana and Mississippi in the fourth quarter of 2006. For
more information, see the QCEW section of the Katrina coverage on
the BLS Web site at (http://www.bls.gov/katrina/qcewquestions.htm).
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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 2005 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 fourth quarter 2005 version of this news release. This edition
will also be the first to include the data on a CD for enhanced
access and usability. As a result of this change, the printed
booklet will contain only selected graphic representation of QCEW
data; the data tables themselves will be published exclusively in
electronic formats as PDF and fixed-width text files. Employment and
Wages Annual Averages, 2005 on CD-ROM is available for $13.00 from
the United States Government Printing Office, Superintendent of
Documents. On-line ordering information is available at
http://bookstore.gpo.gov/ . The 2005 bulletin is also available in a
portable document format (PDF) on the BLS Web site at
http://www.bls.gov/cew/cewbultn05.htm.
QCEW-based news releases issued by other regional offices have
been placed at one convenient Web site location,
http://www.bls.gov/cew/cewregional.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 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CT.
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 14 largest
counties in Illinois, fourth quarter 2006 2/
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| | Average weekly wage 3/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | | Percent |National
| Employment |Average |National | change | ranking
Area |December 2006| weekly |ranking by |fourth qtr.|by percent
| (thousands) | wage |level 4/ | 2005-06 5/| change 4/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
United States (6) 135,933.2 861 -- 4.2 --
Illinois 5,899.5 928 8 4.6 20
Champaign, Ill. 91.8 706 269 4.1 137
Cook, Ill. 2,569.9 1,051 36 5.1 64
Du Page,Ill. 601.8 1,021 43 4.9 75
Kane, Ill. 210.4 803 158 3.1 227
Lake, Ill. 329.8 1,081 28 5.3 54
Madison, Ill. 95.2 713 261 -1.2 315
McHenry, Ill. 102.3 771 189 3.2 220
McLean, Ill. 86.0 795 163 4.3 114
Peoria, Ill. 104.1 818 140 2.3 275
Rock Island, Ill. 78.6 996 49 9.5 7
Sangamon,Ill. 130.6 823 136 4.6 101
St. Clair, Ill. 96.2 691 277 3.6 183
Will, Ill. 183.8 788 170 2.5 262
Winnebago, Ill. 138.4 729 244 3.0 235
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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.
Table 2. Covered 1/ employment and wages by state, fourth
quarter 2006 2/
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| | Average weekly wage 3/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | | Percent | National
| Employment |Average |National | change | ranking
Area |December2006| weekly |ranking by | fourth qtr.| by percent
| (thousands)| wage |level 4/ | 2005-06 | change 4/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
United States (4) 135,933.2 $861 - 4.2 -
Alabama 1,948.9 737 33 4.4 27
Alaska 296.2 837 17 5.3 11
Arizona 2,693.3 805 22 4.7 18
Arkansas 1,179.3 652 47 2.8 43
California 15,672.1 987 6 4.4 27
Colorado 2,283.3 877 12 5.0 15
Connecticut 1,706.3 1,101 3 2.0 50
Delaware 427.5 896 10 -4.1 51
District of Columbia 675.0 1,424 1 5.0 15
Florida 8,126.2 788 23 4.6 20
Georgia 4,090.4 812 21 2.1 49
Hawaii 632.3 762 27 3.5 38
Idaho 649.8 672 45 7.0 4
Illinois 5,899.5 928 8 4.6 20
Indiana 2,924.3 723 36 2.6 45
Iowa 1,486.3 697 40 3.7 35
Kansas 1,358.9 725 34 6.5 5
Kentucky 1,815.4 708 37 3.8 33
Louisiana 1,855.1 748 30 5.1 14
Maine 603.4 679 43 2.7 44
Maryland 2,570.5 941 7 3.4 39
Massachusetts 3,244.5 1,072 4 4.5 25
Michigan 4,242.5 852 14 2.2 48
Minnesota 2,683.1 840 16 4.0 32
Mississippi 1,140.3 630 49 2.6 45
Missouri 2,737.5 741 32 2.3 47
Montana 431.6 625 50 5.8 6
Nebraska 912.2 687 42 3.6 37
Nevada 1,285.8 817 19 5.4 10
New Hampshire 636.9 917 9 8.1 2
New Jersey 4,023.6 1,055 5 4.4 27
New Mexico 823.2 705 39 7.1 3
New York 8,643.1 1,104 2 5.3 11
North Carolina 4,054.0 751 29 4.6 20
North Dakota 341.0 643 48 4.7 18
Ohio 5,346.2 774 24 3.1 42
Oklahoma 1,536.4 679 43 5.8 6
Oregon 1,723.9 763 26 4.8 17
Pennsylvania 5,680.8 837 17 4.4 27
Rhode Island 488.4 817 19 3.8 33
South Carolina 1,886.8 688 41 3.3 41
South Dakota 387.1 614 51 4.2 31
Tennessee 2,785.2 773 25 4.6 20
Texas 10,164.2 871 13 5.8 6
Utah 1,208.0 725 34 5.5 9
Vermont 308.7 707 38 3.4 39
Virginia 3,682.9 887 11 3.7 35
Washington 2,863.7 846 15 5.2 13
West Virginia 714.3 656 46 4.6 20
Wisconsin 2,792.4 746 31 4.5 25
Wyoming 270.9 759 28 11.3 1
Puerto Rico 1,062.8 494 (5) 4.7 (5)
Virgin Islands 45.5 711 (5) 7.2 (5)
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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: August 31, 2007
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