US Counties — Employment & Wages

The BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) is the most comprehensive count of US employment — it covers ~95% of all wage-and-salary jobs (everything that pays into state unemployment insurance), and reports annual averages for every county, every NAICS industry sector, and every ownership class (Federal, State, Local, Private).

Coverage on this site: 3,383 US counties, latest BLS release 2024. County-level cells for small industries are often suppressed by BLS for confidentiality, so individual sector counts can be incomplete.

Top 50 Counties by Employment (2024)

Top 50 U.S. counties by employment, BLS QCEW 2024.
Rank County State Avg Employment Total Wages
1 Los Angeles County CA 4,525,711 $378.1B
2 Cook County IL 2,565,567 $223.0B
3 New York County NY 2,466,798 $407.2B
4 Harris County TX 2,445,971 $216.6B
5 Maricopa County AZ 2,280,645 $168.4B
6 Dallas County TX 1,826,215 $163.1B
7 Orange County CA 1,661,276 $135.2B
8 San Diego County CA 1,536,542 $127.3B
9 King County WA 1,449,785 $191.8B
10 Miami-Dade County FL 1,257,569 $97.6B
11 Clark County NV 1,124,772 $73.1B
12 Santa Clara County CA 1,116,581 $220.0B
13 Tarrant County TX 1,010,351 $73.4B
14 Orange County FL 949,917 $64.4B
15 Fulton County GA 948,157 $95.6B
16 Bexar County TX 932,387 $61.4B
17 Middlesex County MA 926,105 $105.3B
18 Kings County NY 923,681 $55.4B
19 Hennepin County MN 917,117 $82.7B
20 Travis County TX 903,334 $87.0B
21 Broward County FL 864,520 $61.8B
22 San Bernardino County CA 845,907 $52.8B
23 Riverside County CA 840,433 $50.2B
24 Salt Lake County UT 796,203 $61.7B
25 Alameda County CA 790,358 $77.5B
26 Hillsborough County FL 789,442 $59.4B
27 Mecklenburg County NC 788,435 $69.5B
28 Franklin County OH 779,560 $57.0B
29 Queens County NY 770,652 $52.2B
30 District of Columbia DC 759,572 $93.4B
31 Sacramento County CA 726,938 $58.2B
32 Wayne County MI 725,504 $55.4B
33 Oakland County MI 723,862 $56.4B
34 Philadelphia County PA 714,504 $59.4B
35 Suffolk County MA 713,809 $93.7B
36 San Francisco County CA 707,647 $123.2B
37 Cuyahoga County OH 705,152 $53.0B
38 Suffolk County NY 679,593 $53.8B
39 Allegheny County PA 670,637 $52.5B
40 Palm Beach County FL 666,889 $51.5B
41 Wake County NC 653,152 $50.2B
42 Fairfax County VA 636,429 $72.6B
43 Nassau County NY 631,563 $48.9B
44 Marion County IN 625,533 $47.6B
45 St. Louis County MO 596,675 $45.3B
46 DuPage County IL 577,376 $46.5B
47 Denver County CO 565,183 $57.6B
48 Duval County FL 563,527 $40.4B
49 Unknown Or Undefined CA 561,023 $76.8B
50 Davidson County TN 555,404 $46.2B

Counties by State

Number of counties in each state with QCEW coverage and total state employment.

AK

31 counties · 0.33M jobs

AL

68 counties · 2.11M jobs

AR

76 counties · 1.30M jobs

AZ

16 counties · 3.22M jobs

CA

59 counties · 18.18M jobs

CO

65 counties · 2.90M jobs

CT

10 counties · 1.61M jobs

DC

2 counties · 0.76M jobs

DE

4 counties · 0.40M jobs

FL

68 counties · 9.84M jobs

GA

160 counties · 4.86M jobs

HI

5 counties · 0.63M jobs

IA

100 counties · 1.55M jobs

ID

45 counties · 0.86M jobs

IL

103 counties · 5.76M jobs

IN

93 counties · 3.18M jobs

KS

106 counties · 1.43M jobs

KY

121 counties · 1.99M jobs

LA

65 counties · 1.88M jobs

MA

15 counties · 3.64M jobs

MD

25 counties · 2.56M jobs

ME

17 counties · 0.65M jobs

MI

84 counties · 4.35M jobs

MN

88 counties · 2.93M jobs

MO

116 counties · 2.90M jobs

MS

83 counties · 1.17M jobs

MT

57 counties · 0.51M jobs

NC

101 counties · 4.90M jobs

ND

54 counties · 0.43M jobs

NE

94 counties · 1.02M jobs

NH

11 counties · 0.69M jobs

NJ

22 counties · 4.25M jobs

NM

34 counties · 0.87M jobs

NV

18 counties · 1.55M jobs

NY

63 counties · 9.71M jobs

OH

89 counties · 5.52M jobs

OK

78 counties · 1.68M jobs

OR

37 counties · 1.99M jobs

PA

68 counties · 5.68M jobs

RI

6 counties · 0.50M jobs

SC

47 counties · 2.27M jobs

SD

67 counties · 0.45M jobs

TN

96 counties · 3.27M jobs

TX

254 counties · 13.28M jobs

UT

29 counties · 1.71M jobs

VA

134 counties · 4.11M jobs

VT

15 counties · 0.30M jobs

WA

40 counties · 3.53M jobs

WI

73 counties · 2.91M jobs

WV

56 counties · 0.70M jobs

WY

24 counties · 0.27M jobs