Last Updated :
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August 31, 2020
Washington Employment Statistics- 248,759 employers
- 3,374,998 employees
- $1,272 average weekly wage
- The average weekly wage is 15.5% above the national average
- The cost of living is 9.5% above the national average
Types of Employers (Private Sector vs Government Agency)
As an employer in Washington, you are most likely to be running a private company rather than a government agency. 98.1% of employers run private companies in the state, BIGGER1.1% greater than the national average of 97.0. The remaining 1.9% of employers are government agencies: 0.5% work in a federal agency, 0.4% work for the state and 0.9% work for local government. The chart below illustrates the breakout of employers by type.
83.3% of employees work for a private company. This is 1.9% below the national average of 85.2%. Local government agencies employ 10.5% of the workers in the state, state government agencies employ 3.9% of the workers and the federal government employs 2.2%. The percentage of employees working for a government agency (16.7%) is 1.9% higher than the national average. The chart below illustrates the breakout of employees by type of employer.
The average weekly wage in Washington is $1,272 per week, which is 15.5% less than the national average of $1,101 per week. Washington workers that are employed by private businesses earn $1,281 per week, 16.5% greater than the national average for private company employees. Employees of federal government agencies in Washington earn $1,573 per week, a premium of 22.8% compared to what employees of private companies earn. The chart below illustrates the average weekly by type of employer.
Leading Sectors
Businesses by Sector
The sector with the greatest number of businesses in the state is Healthcare with 23.2% of the businesses in the state. Professional services (10.7%) and Construction (10.4%) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Sectors by # of Businesses
| Sector | # Businesses | % of Bus. |
|---|
| Healthcare | 57,594 | 23.2% |
| Professional services | 26,645 | 10.7% |
| Construction | 25,973 | 10.4% |
| Retail trade | 20,141 | 8.1% |
| Other services | 19,844 | 8.0% |
| Accommodation and food services | 17,437 | 7.0% |
| Wholesale trade | 13,858 | 5.6% |
| Waste services | 12,784 | 5.1% |
| Finance and insurance | 9,081 | 3.7% |
| Real estate and rental | 8,482 | 3.4% |
| Manufacturing | 7,794 | 3.1% |
| Agriculture and forestry | 7,155 | 2.9% |
| Transport and warehousing | 4,984 | 2.0% |
| Information | 4,616 | 1.9% |
| Educational services | 3,399 | 1.4% |
| Arts and entertainment | 2,986 | 1.2% |
| Company management | 714 | 0.3% |
| Utilities | 307 | 0.1% |
| Mining and oil extraction | 156 | 0.1% |
| Unclassified | 54 | 0.0% |
Employees by Sector
The sector with the greatest number of employees in the state is
Healthcare with 12.5% of the employees in the state.
Retail trade (11.2%) and
Manufacturing (8.4%) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Sectors by # of Employees
| Sector | # Employees | % of Emp' |
|---|
| Healthcare | 421,669 | 12.5% |
| Retail trade | 379,661 | 11.2% |
| Manufacturing | 284,156 | 8.4% |
| Accommodation and food services | 283,229 | 8.4% |
| Professional services | 201,623 | 6.0% |
| Construction | 200,149 | 5.9% |
| Waste services | 168,684 | 5.0% |
| Wholesale trade | 133,653 | 4.0% |
| Information | 133,175 | 3.9% |
| Agriculture and forestry | 107,329 | 3.2% |
| Transport and warehousing | 103,343 | 3.1% |
| Other services | 99,128 | 2.9% |
| Finance and insurance | 94,490 | 2.8% |
| Real estate and rental | 53,399 | 1.6% |
| Arts and entertainment | 53,004 | 1.6% |
| Company management | 44,593 | 1.3% |
| Educational services | 44,101 | 1.3% |
| Utilities | 5,037 | 0.1% |
| Mining and oil extraction | 2,578 | 0.1% |
| Unclassified | 14 | 0.0% |
Average Weekly Wage by Sector
The sector that pays their employees the highest is
Information paying $3,745per week compared with the state average of $1,281.
Unclassified ($3,620) and
Company management ($2,268) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Wages by Sector
| Sector | Wkly Wage | vs St Avg. |
|---|
| Information | $3,745 | 292.3% |
| Unclassified | $3,620 | 282.6% |
| Company management | $2,268 | 177.0% |
| Professional services | $1,949 | 152.1% |
| Utilities | $1,917 | 149.6% |
| Finance and insurance | $1,826 | 142.5% |
| Wholesale trade | $1,546 | 120.7% |
| Manufacturing | $1,526 | 119.1% |
| Mining and oil extraction | $1,365 | 106.6% |
| Construction | $1,240 | 96.8% |
| Transport and warehousing | $1,163 | 90.8% |
| Retail trade | $1,132 | 88.4% |
| Real estate and rental | $1,061 | 82.8% |
| Healthcare | $1,013 | 79.1% |
| Waste services | $969 | 75.6% |
| Other services | $777 | 60.7% |
| Educational services | $750 | 58.5% |
| Arts and entertainment | $624 | 48.7% |
| Agriculture and forestry | $622 | 48.6% |
| Accommodation and food services | $462 | 36.1% |
Leading Industries
Businesses by Industry
Each broad sector is made up of specific industries. In Washington. the industry with the most businesses is
Services for the elderly and disabled with 16.1% of the businesses in the state (with 40,149 employing 62,835 workers).
Restaurants and other eating places (5.6%) and
Computer systems design and related services (3.3%) round out the top 3 industries. The Top 10 Industries in the state are:
| Industry | # Businesses | Emp/Biz |
|---|
| Services for the elderly and disabled | 40,149 | 1.6 |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 13,861 | 16.1 |
| Computer systems design and related services | 8,104 | 7.0 |
| Residential building construction | 7,843 | 3.8 |
| Private households | 6,446 | 1.1 |
| Wholesale trade agents and brokers | 4,521 | 4.1 |
| Management consulting services | 3,772 | 5.9 |
| Offices of dentists | 3,222 | 8.5 |
| Landscaping services | 3,206 | 5.4 |
| Accounting and bookkeeping services | 3,191 | 6.2 |
Employees by Industry
The industry with the greatest number of employees in the state is
Restaurants and other eating places with 6.6% of the businesses in the state. The industry employs 223,338 in 13,861 businesses, there are 16.1 employees on average in each of these businesses.
General medical and surgical hospitals (2.5%) and
Aerospace product and parts manufacturing (2.5%) round out the top 3 industries.
Table: Industries by # of Employees
| Industry | # Emp | Emp/Biz |
|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 223,338 | 16.1 |
| General medical and surgical hospitals | 85,164 | 1,026.1 |
| Aerospace product and parts manufacturing | 83,876 | 421.5 |
| Software publishers | 65,212 | 51.9 |
| Services for the elderly and disabled | 62,835 | 1.6 |
| Computer systems design and related services | 56,763 | 7.0 |
| Supermarkets and other grocery stores | 55,355 | 41.0 |
| Offices of physicians | 52,548 | 19.9 |
| Temporary help services | 50,188 | 29.8 |
| General merchandise stores including warehouse clubs and supercenters | 48,883 | 109.8 |
Average Weekly Wage by Industry
The industry that pays their employees the most is
Investment banking and securities dealing, paying $5,362 compared with the state average of $1,281.
Open-end investment funds ($4,978) and
Software publishers ($4,792) round out the top 3 industries.
Table: Wages by Industry
| Industry | Wkly Wage | % of Avg |
|---|
| Investment banking and securities dealing | $5,362 | 418.6 |
| Open-end investment funds | $4,978 | 388.6 |
| Software publishers | $4,792 | 374.1 |
| Internet publishing and web search portals | $4,464 | 348.5 |
| Commodity contracts brokerage | $4,248 | 331.6 |
| Electronic shopping and mail-order houses | $4,223 | 329.7 |
| Unclassified | $3,620 | 282.6 |
| Other financial vehicles | $3,559 | 277.8 |
| Securities and commodity exchanges | $3,548 | 277.0 |
| Portfolio management | $3,522 | 274.9 |
Company Size
Washington Businesses by Size
The
solopreneur company, has the most businesses in Washington by far. 65.6% of all businesses in the state have fewer than 5 employees. The 225,235 small businesses in the state represent 96.1% of all private businesses. The national average is 92.6%. (Small businesses have fewer than 50 employees, Solopreneurs employ fewer than 5.) The pie chart below illustrates the ratio of business sizes.
Washington Employees by Business Size
The largest companies in the state represent 154.7% of all employees, which is 16.2% higher than the national average of 138.4%. Interestingly, the smallest companies in the state employ a higher percentage than the largest companies, this is not typical. The solopreneur (those that employ fewer than 5) companies employ 97.4% of all workers, which is 5.9% higher than the national average of 91.5%. All small companies, those employing fewer than 50 people, represent 520.3% of the labor force in the state, 29.7% less than the national average of 550.0%.
Washington Avg Weekly Wages by Business Size
The smallest companies in Washington (those with fewer than 5 employees) pay workers 18.5% less than the national average ($823 per week as compared to the national average of $975 per week). The largest companies in Washington (those with more than 1,000 employees) pay 35.3% workers above the national average ($2,909 per week as compared to the national average of $1,882 per week).
Data Sources
About the Writer
This page was created and is maintained by Kurt Tietjen, Founder of Stavera, High Peak Media & HomeGearWorks.com. Kurt is an executive, data scientist and software engineer who holds an MBA in Management Information Systems. In 2010, he partnered with scientists at Northwestern University to launch The Street Wire. This was one of the first mainstream uses of what would become “Narrative Science”, an artificial intelligence platform specializing in natural language generation. You can contact Kurt on LinkedIn here.