Employment rose in all three of the largest counties in Iowa with published data from March 2025 to March 2026, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Iowa employment decreased 0.1 percent over the year to 1,537,500 in March 2026, as measured by the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program. (See table 1.) Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that Johnson County (+1.3 percent) had the largest over-the-year increase in employment. (See chart 1.)

  

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Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in covered employment among the largest counties in Iowa, March 2026

County	Percent change, March 2026
Johnson	1.3
Linn	0.6
Polk	0.6

Polk County (312,900) had the highest employment level in Iowa in March 2026. Together, the four largest counties accounted for 40.0 percent of total covered employment within the state. Nationwide, the 376 largest counties comprise 73.5 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 2025.)

Average weekly wage gains in 2 of the 4 large counties in Iowa were above the national average of 3.9 percent. (See chart 2.) Linn had the largest gain (+7.2 percent). Wages increased for the remaining three large counties: Scott (+5.1 percent), Johnson (+3.9 percent), and Polk (+2.8 percent).

  

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Chart 2. Over-the-year percent change in covered average weekly wages among the largest counties in Iowa, first quarter 2026

County	Percent change, first quarter 2026
Linn	7.2
Scott	5.1
Johnson	3.9
Polk	2.8

Weekly wages in all four large counties in Iowa were below the national average of $1,654. Average weekly wages ranged from $1,604 in Polk to $1,249 in Scott.

Statewide, average weekly wages increased 3.9 percent over the year to $1,301. Iowa ranked 36th in average weekly wages among the 50 states and the District of Columbia and 22nd in wage growth.

Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 95 smaller counties in Iowa, defined as having employment below 75,000 in 2025. (See table 2.) Wage levels in 94 of the 95 smaller counties were below the national average. Dallas reported the highest average weekly wage ($1,771) in the state. Decatur reported the lowest average weekly wage ($823).

Among all 99 Iowa counties, 6 reported average weekly wages less than $950, 29 had wages from $950 to $1,024, 31 had wages from $1,025 to $1,099, 13 had wages from $1,100 to $1,174, and 20 had average weekly wages of $1,175 or higher. (See map 1 and table 2.)

QCEW data for all 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 second quarter 2026 is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, December 2, 2026.