Middlesex County: Second In Nation For Rising Wages
Out of 322 of the nation's largest counties, Middlesex County, which encompasses much of the Central and Northern MetroWest corridor, experienced the second-largest increase in wages last year, according to recently published government data.
On a year-over-year basis in the second quarter of 2011, wages increased 10.2 percent in Middlesex County, the second largest increase of the countries surveyed by the national Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Nationwide, wages increased an average of 3 percent.
The average weekly wage of a Middlesex County resident was $1,385, best for ninth in the country, according to the figures, which is compared to an $891 national average weekly wage. Wages in Middlesex County were up $128 between the second quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of 2011 -third largest dollar amount increase for U.S. wages.
The most recent government data published this week reinforces MetroWest as home to a diverse collection of high-paying jobs.
Beneficial Blend
It's very good news," said Paul Matthews, executive director of the 495/MetroWest Corridor Partnership, a regional advocacy group. Matthews said the news speaks to the diversified makeup of businesses in the region within cutting-edge sectors such as medical devices, software and hardware development and manufacturing, life sciences and renewable energy.
Many of those industries are the ones that are increasing wages, said Martha Meaney, a professor of economics and business administration at Framingham State University's MetroWest Economic Research Center. For example, she said, one of the largest increases in employment in Middlesex County in 2011 was in professional business services. That sector, she said, had a high level of wage increases during the second quarter as well. So the region is growing jobs in industries that are also increasing wages.
Most counties in America experienced increased wages last year, the government report found. MetroWest, however, experienced one of the largest increases in the country, while also boasting one of the highest weekly wages in the country.
Williamson, Texas, posted the single largest gain of any county in the country with an 18-percent gain in weekly wages, while Harford, Md., came in at third with an 8.8-percent gain. Those counties were followed by areas in California, Pennsylvania and Colorado that rounded out the top six wage increases among the nation's 322 largest counties.
In terms of weekly wages, Middlesex County has the ninth-highest wages in the nation out of the 322 counties surveyed by the BLS. The top-earning county in the nation is Santa Clara, Calif., home to the brain center of Silicon Valley, which has an average weekly wage of $1,743. New York City posts the second highest wages in the nation at $1,645, which is followed by: Arlington, Va., Washington, D.C., Fairfield, Conn., San Francisco, Fairfax, Va., San Mateo, Calif., and then Middlesex County.
Suffolk County - which includes Boston - had an average weekly wage of $1,382, the 10th highest in the nation. Only 11 counties experienced a decline in wages on a year-over-year basis in the second quarter of 2011. Champaign, Ill., saw wages drop 3.6 percent, while Benton, Ark., Rutherford, Tenn., and New York City rounded out the top five large counties that saw a wage drop.
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