Employment declined in 11 of the 18 largest counties in New York from March 2025 to March 2026, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. New York employment decreased 0.3 percent over the year to 9,743,600 in March 2026, as measured by the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program. (See table 1.) Regional Commissioner Mark J. Maggi noted that Orange County (-1.9 percent) had the largest over-the-year decrease in employment. (See chart 1.)

  

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

County	Percent change, March 2026
Orange	-1.9
Saratoga	-1.7
Suffolk	-1.3
Westchester	-1.1
Monroe	-1.0
Nassau	-0.9
Erie	-0.6
Albany	-0.4
Rockland	-0.4
Queens	-0.3
Dutchess	-0.1
Bronx	0.0
Broome	0.0
Oneida	0.2
Onondaga	0.2
Richmond	0.2
New York	0.6
Kings	1.4

New York County (2,499,600) had the highest employment level in New York in March 2026. Together, the 18 largest counties accounted for 86.4 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.)

All 17 large New York counties with published data reported average weekly wage gains over the year. (See chart 2.) New York County had the largest gain (+7.9 percent). Over-the-year wage gains among the other 16 large New York counties ranged from 6.6 percent to 1.4 percent.

  

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

County	Percent change, first quarter 2026
New York	7.9
Suffolk	6.6
Dutchess	5.3
Albany	5.2
Saratoga	5.1
Nassau	5.0
Orange	4.8
Monroe	3.6
Kings	3.2
Oneida	3.0
Bronx	2.9
Broome	2.8
Queens	2.7
Erie	2.6
Richmond	2.3
Westchester	2.2
Rockland	1.4

Weekly wages in 4 of the 18 largest counties in New York were above the national average of $1,654. Average weekly wages ranged from $4,902 in New York County to $1,215 in Kings County.

Statewide, average weekly wages increased 6.5 percent over the year to $2,363. New York ranked 2nd in average weekly wages among the 50 states and the District of Columbia and 1st in wage growth.

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 2025. (See table 2.) Wage levels in 43 of the 44 smaller counties were below the national average. Steuben reported the highest average weekly wage ($1,919) among small counties. Herkimer reported the lowest average weekly wage ($993) in the state.

Among all 62 New York counties, 14 reported average weekly wages less than $1,125, 12 had wages from $1,125 to $1,224, 12 had wages from $1,225 to $1,324, 11 had wages from $1,325 to $1,424, and 13 had average weekly wages of $1,425 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.