Employment Characteristics
This section summarizes characteristics of workers in Chester County, who may be residents of the county or commute into the county.
Employees Working in County
Chester County's job growth from 2000-2022 was on-par with the US, and the third highest in the region.
With 246,150 jobs in 2022, Chester County saw a slight increase in employment from 2021 but had not returned to pre-pandemic employment figures. Chester County's year over year rate of job growth from 2021 to 2022 (three percent) was in line with other counties in the region, which ranged from three to five percent growth. Chester County had the third highest growth rate when comparing 2000 employment levels to 2022. Montgomery County saw 26 percent growth during this time, Philadelphia 14 percent growth, and Chester County seven percent growth.
Job estimates vary based on data source. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data used in this report for total, industry, and top industry employment includes all part-time or full-time workers who are paid a wage or salary. The BLS data excludes self-employed, proprietors, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, and unpaid family workers.
Figure 17 — Regional Employment
Figure 18 — Percent Change in Employment
Employment by Industry
Chester County's employment is concentrated in service and professional industries.
Chester County's employment is broken into broad industry categories by the federal government called NAICS codes. Health care, retail, professional service, finance, and manufacturing employ the highest amount people in the county. Job totals can vary by source and year, and the most current data for detailed industry breakdown is from 2022.
Figure 19 — Employment by Major Industy
Chester County has an exceptionally high share of the state's employment in many industries. Agriculture has a particularly large share at 17 percent, due the mushroom industry. Finance also has a large share at nine percent, largely due to Vanguard. Information management of companies and enterprises, and professional and technical services all have large shares of Pennsylvania's employment, especially when compared to population size.
Figure 20 —County Percent of PA Employment
Looking more specifically at individual four-digit NAICS codes, the largest number of employees in 2022 were in elementary and secondary schools, other financial investment activities, and restaurants.
Figure 21 — Top 20 Specific Industries
Wages by Industry
Chester County had a high overall average wage in 2022 of $84,097, up from $81,892 in 2021. The county has the highest annual average wage in Southeast Pennsylvania, and is far higher than Pennsylvania or the U.S.
High Chester County wages are largely driven by the finance, real estate, management, and utilities industries. Other large industries, such as education, health care, lodging, and food services have average wages closer to state and national figures.
Figure 22 — Wages by Major Industry
Figure 23 — Average Wages
Many specific industries have particularly high averages. Basic chemical manufacturing has the highest median income at $206,699, and is high compared to both PA ($101,119) and the US ($116,898). These wages are likely due to the presence of company offices instead of active services in the county. Although slightly higher, the majority of the other high wage industries in the county generally track with PA and the US.
Figure 24 — Wages by Specific Industry
This table only includes 4-digit NAICS code industries with over 50 employees.
Employment Location Quotient by Industry
Chester County has strong competitive advantages in company management, agriculture, finance, and professional services.
The employment location quotient compares the portion of jobs in an industry in Chester County with the portion of jobs in the nation. For industries where Chester County mimics the national ratio exactly, the location quotient will be 1. When the county has a higher share of jobs than the nation, the location quotient will be greater than 1. Location quotients higher than 1 indicate that the industry is exporting goods or services outside of the county. Location quotients of less than 1 mean the county has a lower share of jobs, which indicates that the county is importing goods or services from outside the county for that industry.
Figure 25 — Employment Location Quotient for Major Industries
The majority of specific industries with high location quotients fall into key industry groups identified by the Chester County Economic Development Council (additional information in the Key Industry section). Chester County has extraordinarily high location quotients for other financial investment activities and greenhouse and nursery production, indicating that the County is exporting these goods and services nationally and potentially internationally. Both nursery production and financial investment have multiple significant employers in the County, indicating Chester County has attracted and formed clusters of these industries. These cluster industries have generated spin-off industries such as agricultural chemical manufacturing, another industry with a high location quotient, a result of the strong mushroom industry in the county.
Other high location quotients are driven by one major employer. Examples of this include school and employee bus transportation with Krapf Transportation, and household appliance manufacturing with Lasko Products.
Chester County also showed strength in communications and equipment manufacturing, other animal production, software publishers, fuel dealers, civic and social organizations, and scientific research and development services.
Figure 26 — Employment Location Quotient for Specific Industries
This table only includes 4-digit NAICS code industries with over 50 employees.
Employment Shift Share Analysis by Industry
A shift share analysis removes the influence of national overall and industry employment changes from the actual local change that occurred, to estimate an "expected" local change in employees due to local factors. While not important in themselves, the "expected" local change numbers can be used to identify potential strengths and weaknesses at the local level. The analysis cannot identify the causes of the change at the local level. Unique local factors influencing employment change vary and may include:
- Labor Force Specialization The area may have a labor force with specific industry skills.
- Educational Feeders Schools and colleges can increase labor force specialization and generate spin-offs.
- Local Assets Local natural or historical characteristics may cause industry specialization.
- Large Employers Major employers opening, terminating employees, or closing in a local area will impact changes in employment.
- Industry Clusters Areas may develop strengths in an industry, which supports future growth in the industry.
- Industry Support Industries may open to support existing strong industries, such as produce distribution centers to support restaurants or farms.
- Industry Externalities Industries may develop to handle the externalities of other prominent businesses, such as compost as a result of farm refuse.
- Technology Changes Advances in technological efficiencies may cause decreases in employment at the local level.
- Cost-Of-Living Costs such as housing and transportation costs can assist or stymie industry growth.
- Major Events Events and festivals can cause increases in industry employment.
- Population Growth Local growth can increase demand for industries such as construction as new housing is needed.
- Government Intervention Local government policy, taxes, and assistance can grow or hinder industries.
- Local Disaster Natural disasters, epidemics, and man-made disasters at the local level can cause increases or decreases in employment.
- National Clusters Strong clusters in other areas of the country (such as tech jobs in California) may cause disproportionate national growth
The analysis should be combined with additional analyses and local knowledge to understand the unique local factors influencing employment change. From 2015-2022 Chester County showed indications of strong employment growth due to local factors for: finance (nondepository credit intermediation), educational support services, vegetable and melon farming, furniture and furnishing merchant wholesalers, other ambulatory health care services, and household goods repair and maintenance.
Chester County saw indicators of employment decline due to local factors largely in manufacturing and distribution industries. The industries with the highest indications of decline due to local factors from 2015-2022 were machinery and equipment rental and leasing, semiconductor and electronic component manufacturing, warehousing and storage, and druggists' goods merchant wholesalers .
Figure 27 — Specific Industries with Higest Indications of Growth Due to Local Factors
This table only includes 4-digit NAICS code industries with over 50 employees.
Figure 28 — Specific Industries with Highest Indications of Decline Due to Local Factors
This table only includes 4-digit NAICS code industries with over 50 employees.
