Payroll planning begins with the size and location of the workforce a business serves. The March 2026 BLS Employment by state release reports total employment ranging from 294.6 thousand in Wyoming to 18,154.2 thousand in California. These figures describe total employment, not payroll spending, average pay, tax withholding, or employer payroll costs. They are therefore best used as a workforce-scale reference alongside a business’s own employee, wage, and hours data.
Contents
- How to read these payroll statistics
- Largest state employment totals
- Mid-sized employment markets
- Smaller employment markets
- Complete state and territory reference
- What the figures can and cannot tell a payroll team
How to read these payroll statistics
The BLS figures below are reported in thousands of employed people and measured in March 2026. “Total employment” is the reported measure; it is not a count of payroll accounts, establishments, private-sector jobs only, or workers paid by a particular payroll provider. Puerto Rico is included as a territory, while the District of Columbia is listed separately from the 50 states.
For a small-business guide, the numbers are useful for putting payroll operations in context. A company hiring in California is operating in a much larger overall employment market than a company hiring in Wyoming, while both still need employee-level records and location-specific payroll processes. The state totals do not establish what any individual employer pays or how many workers are on that employer’s payroll.
The source label for every figure is BLS Employment by state, March 2026. The supplied research record identifies this as legacy research that was not independently verified, so the figures should be treated as a dated reference rather than as a newly audited payroll dataset.
Largest state employment totals
The largest reported totals are concentrated in the most populous employment markets. California recorded 18,154.2 thousand total employed people in March 2026, followed by Texas at 14,403.5 thousand. Florida had 9,993.2 thousand, and New York had 9,978.5 thousand. Those four states are the only entries in this reference above 9,000 thousand.
The next tier includes Pennsylvania with 6,189.6 thousand and Illinois with 6,145.5 thousand. Ohio recorded 5,681.7 thousand, while North Carolina recorded 5,078.4 thousand. Georgia stood at 4,982.8 thousand, and Michigan at 4,475.9 thousand. New Jersey reported 4,381.6 thousand, and Virginia reported 4,245.4 thousand.
| State | Total employment, March 2026 (thousand) |
|---|---|
| California | 18,154.2 |
| Texas | 14,403.5 |
| Florida | 9,993.2 |
| New York | 9,978.5 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,189.6 |
| Illinois | 6,145.5 |
| Ohio | 5,681.7 |
| North Carolina | 5,078.4 |
| Georgia | 4,982.8 |
| Michigan | 4,475.9 |
| New Jersey | 4,381.6 |
| Virginia | 4,245.4 |
These values can help readers compare the scale of state labor markets when considering expansion, recruiting capacity, or the administrative footprint of a multistate workforce. They do not support a direct estimate of payroll expense. No wage, salary, hours, benefits, tax, or employer contribution figures are provided here.
Mid-sized employment markets
Several states fall between roughly 2,000 and 4,000 thousand total employed people. Massachusetts recorded 3,707.4 thousand in March 2026, and Washington recorded 3,638.0 thousand. Tennessee had 3,378.9 thousand, while Arizona had 3,269.8 thousand and Indiana had 3,261.1 thousand.
Minnesota reported 3,027.3 thousand, and Wisconsin reported 3,021.6 thousand. Missouri recorded 2,982.5 thousand, just below 3,000 thousand, while Colorado recorded 2,954.6 thousand. Maryland had 2,792.9 thousand. South Carolina recorded 2,399.1 thousand, and Alabama recorded 2,204.1 thousand.
The next group was close to 2,000 thousand: Kentucky had 2,034.1 thousand, Louisiana had 2,005.1 thousand, and Oregon had 1,962.4 thousand. These distinctions matter when a business compares the broad size of potential hiring markets, but they should not be confused with the number of workers employed by small businesses or with the number of payroll filings generated in each state.
For payroll administrators, the practical interpretation is limited but useful: a larger statewide employment base may indicate a broader market in which to recruit and operate, while a smaller base may correspond to a more compact labor market. The employment total alone cannot identify the right pay frequency, staffing model, or compliance workload.
Smaller employment markets
The reference includes a wide range of smaller totals. Nevada recorded 1,603.7 thousand total employed people in March 2026, and Iowa recorded 1,575.8 thousand. Kansas had 1,460.0 thousand, while Arkansas had 1,344.1 thousand. Mississippi recorded 1,189.9 thousand, and Nebraska recorded 1,055.8 thousand.
Puerto Rico reported 953.5 thousand total employment. New Mexico had 891.6 thousand, and Idaho had 877.8 thousand. New Hampshire recorded 697.7 thousand, West Virginia recorded 716.0 thousand, and Maine recorded 661.0 thousand. Hawaii had 642.2 thousand.
Montana recorded 524.3 thousand, and Rhode Island recorded 514.6 thousand. Delaware had 496.0 thousand, while South Dakota had 469.6 thousand and North Dakota had 449.4 thousand. Alaska recorded 336.7 thousand, and Vermont recorded 311.5 thousand. Wyoming was the smallest state entry at 294.6 thousand.
The District of Columbia had 720.3 thousand total employment. Because it is a federal district rather than a state, it is useful to keep its figure visibly separate in comparisons. Likewise, Puerto Rico is a territory, so its inclusion expands the reference beyond the 50 states.
Complete state and territory reference
The following list preserves the complete March 2026 reference in a compact format. Every value is total employment in thousands and comes from BLS Employment by state, March 2026.
| Location | Total employment (thousand) |
|---|---|
| Alabama | 2,204.1 |
| Alaska | 336.7 |
| Arizona | 3,269.8 |
| Arkansas | 1,344.1 |
| California | 18,154.2 |
| Colorado | 2,954.6 |
| Connecticut | 1,717.3 |
| Delaware | 496.0 |
| District of Columbia | 720.3 |
| Florida | 9,993.2 |
| Georgia | 4,982.8 |
| Hawaii | 642.2 |
| Idaho | 877.8 |
| Illinois | 6,145.5 |
| Indiana | 3,261.1 |
| Iowa | 1,575.8 |
| Kansas | 1,460.0 |
| Kentucky | 2,034.1 |
| Louisiana | 2,005.1 |
| Maine | 661.0 |
| Maryland | 2,792.9 |
| Massachusetts | 3,707.4 |
| Michigan | 4,475.9 |
| Minnesota | 3,027.3 |
| Mississippi | 1,189.9 |
| Missouri | 2,982.5 |
| Montana | 524.3 |
| Nebraska | 1,055.8 |
| Nevada | 1,603.7 |
| New Hampshire | 697.7 |
| New Jersey | 4,381.6 |
| New Mexico | 891.6 |
| New York | 9,978.5 |
| North Carolina | 5,078.4 |
| North Dakota | 449.4 |
| Ohio | 5,681.7 |
| Oklahoma | 1,790.2 |
| Oregon | 1,962.4 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,189.6 |
| Puerto Rico | 953.5 |
| Rhode Island | 514.6 |
| South Carolina | 2,399.1 |
| South Dakota | 469.6 |
| Tennessee | 3,378.9 |
| Texas | 14,403.5 |
| Utah | 1,773.9 |
| Vermont | 311.5 |
| Virginia | 4,245.4 |
| Washington | 3,638.0 |
| West Virginia | 716.0 |
| Wisconsin | 3,021.6 |
| Wyoming | 294.6 |
What the figures can and cannot tell a payroll team
These statistics are most reliable as a comparison of employment-market scale at one point in time. They can support a preliminary discussion about where a business may recruit, how broadly it may need to market open positions, or how a multistate workforce compares with the overall employment landscape.
They cannot answer several common payroll questions. The figures do not show average or median wages, total payroll dollars, payroll taxes, overtime, benefits, contractor payments, employee turnover, pay frequency, or the number of employers. They also do not reveal how employment is distributed by industry, occupation, age, hours worked, or business size. A state total should therefore never be multiplied by an assumed wage to create a payroll estimate.
A business using these numbers for planning should pair them with its own headcount, work locations, compensation records, hours, benefits, and applicable payroll rules. The March 2026 measurement date also matters: employment totals can change over time, so a later planning decision should use a current release when one is available. The figures here are not forecasts and do not describe future employment.
For small-business readers, the central takeaway is straightforward: state employment totals provide context for the size of the workforce surrounding a business, while actual payroll statistics require employer-specific wage and payment records. Keeping those two uses separate makes the BLS figures more useful and avoids presenting employment counts as if they were payroll spending.