Top Metros for Talent Agents: LA Leads Overall, Denver Tops Pay

Across the country, agents and business managers of artists, performers, and athletes have a national median annual salary of $82,890 and national employment of 12,620. National employment for this occupation is projected to grow by 8.7%, providing a broad backdrop for comparing metro‑level pay, employment, and Geography Scores. Within that context, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA leads the metro rankings with a LaborCove Geography Score of 71.17, the highest among the supplied geographies. Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO ranks second with a Geography Score of 68.46, and Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV ranks third with 58.34, illustrating that the top three metros all outscore the remaining listed markets on this composite measure. Median pay varies substantially across the metros where salary data is supplied. Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO has the highest reported metro median salary at $123,950, followed by Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV at $108,580 and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA at $103,730. All three are above the $97,750 median salary in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, even though Los Angeles holds the top overall rank. Employment is concentrated in a few large markets within the supplied data. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has 4,120 employed agents and business managers of artists, performers, and athletes, the largest employment count among the listed metros and matching the “largest employment market” figure in the evidence. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ follows with 2,490, while other metros such as San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA (180), Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL (500), San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA (160), Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (50), Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD (110), and Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA (150) show smaller counts within this set. Taken together, the results show that the highest overall LaborCove Geography Scores, the highest reported metro salaries, and the largest employment counts do not all occur in the same locations. Agents and business managers weighing relocation or market focus can use these differences to align metro choices with their personal priorities around pay, scale, and the mix of factors captured in the LaborCove Geography Score.

For agents and business managers of artists, performers, and athletes, the national median annual salary is $82,890. National employment stands at 12,620, indicating the scale of the occupation across the United States. Looking ahead, national employment for this occupation is projected to grow by 8.7%. This projection applies to the occupation nationally and is not a forecast for any specific metro. The metro comparisons that follow use this national picture as context while focusing on differences in pay, employment counts, and LaborCove Geography Scores.

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA ranks #1 among the listed metros with a LaborCove Geography Score of 71.17. This is the highest Geography Score supplied, placing Los Angeles at the top of the metro rankings for this occupation. Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 68.46, and Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV ranks #3 with 58.34. Both Denver and Las Vegas therefore have lower Geography Scores than Los Angeles, but they remain ahead of the remaining metros in this dataset by rank. Fourth-ranked New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has a Geography Score of 55.13, below the scores for Los Angeles, Denver, and Las Vegas. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA, at #5, has a Geography Score of 47.09, which is lower than New York’s. This pattern shows a clear decline in Geography Scores as the rankings move from first through fifth place.

Among the metros where salary data is supplied, Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO has the highest median annual salary for this occupation at $123,950. This is higher than the national median of $82,890. Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV reports a median salary of $108,580, which is below Denver’s $123,950 but above the national median. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA has a median salary of $103,730, which is lower than Las Vegas’s $108,580 but still above the national figure. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, the #1 ranked metro by Geography Score, has a median salary of $97,750. This salary is lower than Denver’s $123,950, Las Vegas’s $108,580, and San Francisco’s $103,730, yet it is higher than the national median of $82,890. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL has a median salary of $100,650, which is higher than Los Angeles’s $97,750 and also above the national median.

Within the supplied metros, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has 4,120 employed agents and business managers of artists, performers, and athletes. This is the largest employment count in the dataset and matches the stated figure for the largest employment market. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has 2,490 employed workers in this occupation. This employment count is lower than Los Angeles’s 4,120 but higher than the counts reported for the other metros where employment data is supplied. Several additional metros have smaller employment counts in the supplied data: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL has 500, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA has 180, San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA has 160, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA has 150, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD has 110, and Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH has 50. These figures indicate that, within this dataset, Los Angeles and New York stand out for their larger employment counts.

Comparing the metrics together shows that top rankings, higher salaries where supplied, and larger employment counts do not necessarily align in a single metro. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has the highest LaborCove Geography Score at 71.17 and the largest employment count at 4,120, but several other metros report higher median salaries. Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO illustrates this tradeoff: it has the highest reported metro median salary of $123,950 and ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 68.46, but its employment count is not supplied. Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV ranks #3 with a Geography Score of 58.34 and a median salary of $108,580, combining a high salary with a Geography Score that is lower than those of Los Angeles and Denver but higher than New York’s 55.13. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL, with a median salary of $100,650, illustrates that a metro can report a median salary higher than Los Angeles’s $97,750 while ranking lower overall (#6) with a Geography Score of 42.64. These patterns highlight that the LaborCove Geography Score captures more than a single metric and that agents and business managers may weigh salary, employment scale, and Geography Score differently when evaluating metro options.

LaborCove’s rankings for agents and business managers of artists, performers, and athletes are based on authoritative labor‑market data combined with the LaborCove Geography Score, which aggregates multiple metrics into a single comparative measure. National occupation figures, including the median annual salary of $82,890, national employment of 12,620, and the 8.7% projected employment growth rate, come from Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) and related projections referenced to May 2025. The 2026 report year reflects when the results are published, not the underlying observation date. At the metro level, LaborCove uses supplied median annual salaries, employment counts, and Geography Scores to rank locations. The Geography Score is an index created by LaborCove; while it reflects multiple inputs, the exact weighting of individual metrics is not disclosed here. Rankings summarize how metros compare on these measured factors and should be interpreted alongside an individual’s own priorities, such as preferred region, industry niche, or professional network. Projected employment growth is supplied only at the national level. No state or metro growth projections are included in this dataset, so this article does not attribute any projected growth rate to individual metros.