Wages Fall In More Than Half Of NJ Counties, New Data Shows

NEW JERSEY — While New Jersey remains near the top of the list of U.S. states with the highest average salaries, residents in 13 of the 15 largest counties in the state saw wages drop last year, according to new federal data.

The latest figures, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last month, report as much as a 3 percent decline in average wages from the third quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023 in some parts of the state.

Monmouth County saw the largest average wage loss at 2.9 percent, followed by Union County (-2.7 percent), Burlington (-2.1 percent), Essex (-2 percent), Ocean (-1.2 percent) and Morris (-1.1 percent), based on employment and pay data “adjusted for noneconomic county reclassifications,” the BLS said.

Year-over-year wage losses among the other large counties in New Jersey ranged from -2.1 percent to -0.1 percent, BLS officials said. Mercer County and Middlesex County were the only large counties to report wage increases at 3.1 and .4 percent, respectively.

During the same period, employment rose in all 15 large counties, save for Middlesex County, the agency said, with Ocean County reporting a 3.6 percent increase in year-over-year employment. Middlesex County reported a .6 percent drop in employment, according to the data.

The 15 New Jersey largest counties included in the data account for 88.6 percent of total employment within the state, officials said.

Nationwide, wages increased on average by .1 percent during the same time period. The Garden State ranked at no. 37 nationally by wage increase percent change.

New Jersey workers report about $54,860, or 14 percent more than the average median annual wage of $48,060 for U.S. workers, per the BLS. That’s compared to the highest median wage in Massachusetts ($60,690) and the lowest in Mississippi ($37,500). Read more: Here's How NJ Salaries Compare To Other U.S. States

In fact, despite the drop, the average weekly wage in four New Jersey counties still ranked among the top 25 nationwide in the third quarter of 2023. Those counties were Somerset ($1,785, 12th), Morris ($1,736, 17th), Mercer ($1,646, 23rd), and Hudson ($1,634, 25th), according to the data.

However, all six “small” counties in New Jersey (with employment below 75,000) reported an average weekly wage below the national average. Cape May County reported the lowest average weekly wage in the state at $867.

Without BLS-provided adjustments, 16 counties (all but Warren, Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Camden) reported losses year over year (see chart below), according to a Patch analysis of raw data. In 2021-22, average weekly wages increased between 1.7 and 9.9 percent, and not a single New Jersey county reported a drop.

You can find the average weekly wage by county and percent change (not adjusted for noneconomic county reclassifications) from the third quarter 2022-23 below: