2000 Average Annual Pay by State and Industry — 2001-09-11

The average annual pay of all workers covered by state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) programs rose by 5.9 percent to $35,296 in 2000, according to preliminary data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. This compares with a 4.4 percent rise in 1999. The annual pay of private industry workers, comprising 84.7 percent of the nation's employment, grew by 6.2 percent in 2000, while pay for government workers rose by 4.1 percent. In 1999, the increase in pay for private sector workers was 4.7 percent and for government workers, 2.8 percent. Pay growth for U.S. workers in 2000, at 5.9 percent, was the highest in the 1990-2000 period. This was the largest increase in average annual pay since 1982, when pay rose by 6.7 percent. The attached tables contain pay data for the nation, each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.