What does this measure?

The average annual salary paid to workers in each economic sector.

Why is this important?

Salaries are a gauge of overall economic health and a measure of the degree to which employees are sharing in the prosperity of a community or specific economic sector. They also indicate the vitality of specific sectors and the demand for workers in those sectors.

How is our county doing?

Yearly salaries in Essex County averaged $58,000 in 2017. The highest paid sectors in the county were Manufacturing ($93,000), Financial Activities ($86,000) and Professional and Business Services ($83,000). The lowest paid sector was Leisure and Hospitality ($23,000). This was a bit different from the state and nation, where the Financial Activities ($136,000 and $93,000, respectively) and Information sectors ($109,000 and $102,000, respectively) that were the two highest earning sectors.

How do we compare to similar counties?

Essex County's overall average salary was below the comparison counties. Middlesex, MA had the highest ($83,000), followed by Lake County, IL ($73,000) and Westchester, NY ($72,000). The highest paid sectors were similar across all the counties, though a few of the counties had very high salaries in individual sectors: Financial Activities in Westchester, NY ($135,000) and Information in Middlesex ($141,000).

Notes about the data

Data have been converted to 2017 dollars. 2018 data for this indicator are expected to be released in the third quarter of 2019. Industries in which most of the workforce is full time (e.g., Manufacturing) will appear to pay significantly higher wages than ones that employ many part-timers (e.g., Retail or Leisure and Hospitality).