Employment declined in 2 of the 3 largest counties in Iowa with published data from December 2024 to December 2025, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that Polk County (-0.5 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 Iowa, December 2025

County	Percent change, December 2025
Polk	-0.5
Linn	-0.2
Johnson	2.8

Polk County (315,300) had the highest employment level in Iowa in December 2025. Together, the four largest counties accounted for 39.9 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.)

All three large Iowa counties with published data reported average weekly wage gains over the year. (See chart 2.) Linn had the largest gain (+4.3 percent). Wages also increased for Johnson (+3.4 percent) and Polk (+2.9 percent).

  

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

County	Percent change, fourth quarter 2025
Linn	4.3
Johnson	3.4
Polk	2.9

Weekly wages in all four large counties in Iowa were below the national average of $1,569. Average weekly wages ranged from $1,478 in Polk to $1,309 in Johnson.

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 2024. (See table 2.) Wage levels in all smaller counties were below the national average. Dallas reported the highest average weekly wage ($1,531) in the state. Decatur reported the lowest average weekly wage ($837).

Among all 99 Iowa counties, 7 reported average weekly wages less than $1,000, 25 had wages from $1,000 to $1,074, 35 had wages from $1,075 to $1,149, 12 had wages from $1,150 to $1,224, and 20 had average weekly wages of $1,225 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.