Occupational Employment and Wages in New York-Newark-Jersey City — May 2025

Workers in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $41.50 in May 2025, compared to the nationwide average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Mark J. Maggi noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($94.64) and legal ($87.83). Lower paying occupations included healthcare support ($20.91), food preparation and serving related ($22.22), and personal care and service ($22.46). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the New York area included office and administrative support (11.7 percent) and healthcare support (8.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.8 percent) and architecture and engineering (0.9 percent).

One occupational group-management-was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. New York had 713,690 jobs in management, accounting for 7.5 percent of local area employment, compared to the 7.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $94.64, compared to the national wage of $69.84.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the management group included general and operations managers (177,850) and financial managers (89,960). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were chief executives ($188.66) and financial managers ($120.47). (See chart 1.) At the lower end of the wage scale were food service managers ($45.06), lodging managers ($47.68), and preschool and daycare education and childcare administrators ($47.85). (Detailed data for the management occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0035620/2025.)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the New York area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the management group. For instance, marketing managers were employed at 2.27 times the national rate in New York, and financial managers, at 1.75 times the U.S. average. Medical and health services managers had a location quotient of 0.97 in New York, indicating that this particular occupation's local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the New York State Department of Labor, and the New Jersey Department of Labor.

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 530 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels; and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology is available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area included 23,419 establishments with a response rate of 67 percent.

Metropolitan area definitions

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Bergen County, NJ; Essex County, NJ; Hudson County, NJ; Hunterdon County, NJ; Middlesex County, NJ; Monmouth County, NJ; Morris County, NJ; Ocean County, NJ; Passaic County, NJ; Somerset County, NJ; Sussex County, NJ; Union County, NJ; Bronx County, NY; Kings County, NY; Nassau County, NY; New York County, NY; Putnam County, NY; Queens County, NY; Richmond County, NY; Rockland County, NY; Suffolk County, NY; and Westchester County, NY.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

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