County Employment and Wages News Release - 2024 Q01 Results — 2024-08-21

From March 2023 to March 2024, employment increased in 300 of the 369 largest U.S. counties, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. In March 2024, national employment increased to 153.6 million, a 1.3-percent increase over the year, as measured by the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program. Monterey, CA, and St. Johns, FL, had the largest over-the-year increases in employment, with gains of 4.8 percent each. Employment data in this release are presented for March 2024, and average weekly wage data are presented for first quarter 2024. The replacement of Connecticut's eight counties with the state's nine planning regions was announced in June 2022. Effective with this news release, the QCEW program will tabulate data using the new planning regions as county-equivalents. Among the 369 largest counties, 357 had over-the-year increases in average weekly wages.