US Counties With the Highest Labour Force
3,219 US counties ranked by labour force, from highest to lowest. First are King County, TX (1137.57), Cottle County, TX (889.40) and Upton County, TX (847.85). The middle one of the 3,219 has 467.01.
What this measures
Everyone who is working or actively looking for work. People who have stopped looking are not included. So a falling unemployment rate can mean either more jobs or fewer people looking. Source: BLS LAUS.
This is a count, so it is ranked per 1,000 residents. Ranked by the raw total, it would just list the biggest counties.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 highest counties
Every state, highest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 602.83 |
| 2 | Colorado | 555.88 |
| 3 | New Hampshire | 549.19 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | 546.89 |
| 5 | Minnesota | 543.87 |
| 6 | Nebraska | 541.83 |
| 7 | Vermont | 541.62 |
| 8 | Utah | 539.66 |
| 9 | North Dakota | 536.62 |
| 10 | Iowa | 534.46 |
| 11 | South Dakota | 533.48 |
| 12 | Rhode Island | 530.83 |
| 13 | Connecticut | 530.58 |
| 14 | Wisconsin | 530.43 |
| 15 | New Jersey | 526.52 |
| 16 | Virginia | 524.98 |
| 17 | Washington | 520.26 |
| 18 | Kansas | 519.85 |
| 19 | Maryland | 518.24 |
| 20 | Montana | 517.85 |
| 21 | Texas | 514.43 |
| 22 | Illinois | 514.13 |
| 23 | Idaho | 513.82 |
| 24 | Nevada | 512.07 |
| 25 | Oregon | 511.90 |
| 26 | Delaware | 506.82 |
| 27 | Arizona | 506.58 |
| 28 | Wyoming | 506.36 |
| 29 | Pennsylvania | 505.06 |
| 30 | Maine | 504.10 |
| 31 | Missouri | 503.65 |
| 32 | Indiana | 502.70 |
| 33 | Florida | 502.62 |
| 34 | North Carolina | 498.13 |
| 35 | Michigan | 497.82 |
| 36 | California | 497.29 |
| 37 | Georgia | 496.43 |
| 38 | Ohio | 495.81 |
| 39 | New York | 495.66 |
| 40 | Oklahoma | 492.21 |
| 41 | Tennessee | 487.41 |
| 42 | Alaska | 487.34 |
| 43 | South Carolina | 478.67 |
| 44 | Hawaii | 470.71 |
| 45 | Alabama | 458.03 |
| 46 | Arkansas | 457.09 |
| 47 | New Mexico | 457.03 |
| 48 | Kentucky | 456.09 |
| 49 | Louisiana | 450.25 |
| 50 | West Virginia | 442.04 |
| 51 | Mississippi | 423.83 |
| 52 | Puerto Rico | 369.17 |
More on labour force
- US Counties With the Lowest Labour Force
- Labour force by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.