Employment rose in 9 of the 17 largest counties in New York with published data from December 2024 to December 2025, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Mark J. Maggi noted that Kings County (+1.8 percent) had the largest over-the-year increase 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 New York, December 2025

County	Percent change, December 2025
Kings	1.8
Dutchess	1.5
Bronx	0.9
Richmond	0.8
New York	0.6
Nassau	0.3
Queens	0.2
Albany	0.1
Onondaga	0.1
Monroe	-0.1
Suffolk	-0.1
Broome	-0.5
Westchester	-0.5
Erie	-0.6
Saratoga	-0.6
Orange	-1.1
Oneida	-1.2

New York County (2,520,300) had the highest employment level in New York in December 2025. Together, the 18 largest counties accounted for 86.2 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 9 of the 17 large counties in New York with published data were above the national average of 4.2 percent. (See chart 2.) Broome had the largest gain (+7.7 percent). Over-the-year wage gains among the other 16 large New York counties ranged from 7.3 percent to 1.7 percent.

  

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

County	Percent change, fourth quarter 2025
Broome	7.7
Erie	7.3
Westchester	6.0
New York	5.6
Albany	5.1
Bronx	5.0
Dutchess	4.9
Richmond	4.5
Queens	4.3
Nassau	4.2
Orange	4.2
Monroe	4.0
Oneida	3.8
Rockland	3.6
Suffolk	3.1
Saratoga	2.7
Kings	1.7

Weekly wages in 5 of the 18 largest counties in New York were above the national average of $1,569. Average weekly wages ranged from $3,422 in New York County to $1,242 in Kings.

Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 44 smaller counties in New York, defined as having employment below 75,000 in 2024. (See table 2.) Wage levels in 43 of the 44 smaller counties were below the national average. Rensselaer reported the highest average weekly wage ($1,608). Herkimer reported the lowest average weekly wage ($1,043) in the state.

Among all 62 New York counties, 8 reported average weekly wages less than $1,125, 15 had wages from $1,125 to $1,224, 14 had wages from $1,225 to $1,324, 14 had wages from $1,325 to $1,424, and 11 had average weekly wages of $1,425 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.