Employment declined in 7 of the 8 largest counties in Maryland from December 2024 to December 2025, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Lori Keller noted that Montgomery County (-2.6 percent) had the largest over-the-year decrease in employment. (See chart 1 and table 1.)

  

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Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in covered employment among the largest counties in Maryland, December 2025

County	Percent change, December 2025
Montgomery	-2.6
Harford	-2.2
Prince George's	-2.1
Frederick	-1.7
Baltimore	-1.4
Howard	-1.1
Anne Arundel	-0.5
Baltimore City	1.0

Montgomery County (452,500) had the highest employment level in Maryland in December 2025. Together, the eight largest counties accounted for 78.7 percent of total covered employment within the state. Nationwide, the 372 largest counties comprise 73.4 percent of total covered employment in the United States. (Large counties and county equivalents are those with annual average employment levels of 75,000 or more in 2024.)

Average weekly wage gains in 5 of 6 large counties in Maryland with published data were below the national average of 4.2 percent. (See chart 2.) Anne Arundel had the largest gain (+4.2 percent). Over-the-year wage gains among the other five large Maryland counties ranged from 3.5 percent to 1.6 percent.

  

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Chart 2. Over-the-year percent change in covered average weekly wages among the largest counties in Maryland, fourth quarter 2025

County	Percent change, fourth quarter 2025
Anne Arundel	4.2
Prince George's	3.5
Howard	3.2
Baltimore City	3.2
Baltimore	3.0
Montgomery	1.6

Weekly wages in 4 of the 8 largest counties in Maryland were above the national average of $1,569. Average weekly wages among the large counties ranged from $1,874 in Montgomery to $1,337 in Harford.

Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 16 small counties in Maryland, defined as having employment below 75,000 in 2024. (See table 2.) Wage levels in 15 of the 16 smaller counties were below the national average. St. Mary's reported the highest average weekly wage ($1,708). Worcester reported the lowest average weekly wage ($996) in the state.

Among all 24 Maryland counties, 6 reported average weekly wages less than $1,150, 9 had wages from $1,150 to $1,324, 4 had wages from $1,325 to $1,499, and 5 had average weekly wages of $1,500 or higher. (See map 1 and table 2.)

QCEW data for states have been included in this release in table 3.

Nationwide coverage of the largest counties is published in the County Employment and Wages news release. Additional information about quarterly employment and wages data is available in the news release Technical Note and from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages website.

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The County Employment and Wages release for the first quarter 2026 is scheduled to be released on Friday, August 28, 2026