Top Metros for Logisticians: New York Ranks Highest as Lexington Park Delivers Peak Pay

Across the top ten metros for logisticians, LaborCove’s data shows that high salaries, larger employment counts, and stronger Geography Scores do not always align. Some metros stand out primarily for compensation, others for scale, and others for their overall composite score. New York-Newark-Jersey City, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria illustrate this contrast: Los Angeles has the largest employment count of the three, Washington has the highest median salary, and New York holds the highest LaborCove Geography Score. Several metros, including Lexington Park and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, show substantially higher median salaries than the national median. Because LaborCove’s Geography Score blends multiple factors, a metro can rank higher overall even when another metro has a higher median salary or a larger employment count. Logisticians comparing locations may therefore want to look at all three metrics together rather than focusing on a single number.

At the national level, logisticians have a median annual salary of $82,320 and employment of 251,040. Each of the ten top-ranked metros has its own combination of salary and employment relative to those national benchmarks. Among the three highest-ranked metros, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria has a median salary of $104,330, which is higher than the national median of $82,320. New York-Newark-Jersey City has a median salary of $92,540, which is also above the national median. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has a median salary of $81,730, which is slightly below the national median. On employment, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim stands out within the top three, with 10,950 logisticians compared with New York-Newark-Jersey City at 8,860 and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria at 8,020. All three metros represent only part of the 251,040 national employment total.

LaborCove ranks New York-Newark-Jersey City as the #1 metro for logisticians with a Geography Score of 66.92, ahead of Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim at #2 with a score of 65.12 and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria at #3 with a score of 64.35. These three scores are close together, but they define a clear ordering in LaborCove’s top tier. Farther down the top ten, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara ranks #4 with a Geography Score of 61.74, and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin ranks #5 with a score of 60.31. Both scores are lower than New York-Newark-Jersey City’s 66.92, but still place these metros within the upper half of the top ten metros. At the lower end of this ranked list, San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad holds the #10 spot with a Geography Score of 53.45. Lexington Park, despite its high median salary, ranks #9 with a Geography Score of 54.94. This demonstrates that a metro can rank below peers on the Geography Score even when its pay level is comparatively high.

Several of the top metros provide median salaries well above the national median of $82,320. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara reports a median salary of $115,570 for logisticians, and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue reports $108,920. Both figures are higher than the national median. Lexington Park has the highest median salary among the listed metros at $131,600, which is above both San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara’s $115,570 and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue’s $108,920. These three metros all have median salaries above $100,000. Even within this high-paying group, Geography Scores differ. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara’s Geography Score of 61.74 is higher than Lexington Park’s 54.94, while Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue sits between them at 57.40. This illustrates that among high-salary metros, LaborCove’s Geography Score still differentiates locations.

Among the top ten metros, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has the largest employment count for logisticians, at 10,950. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin follows with 10,220, giving both metros larger employment counts than New York-Newark-Jersey City at 8,860. Within the group of metros with smaller employment counts, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara has 3,440 logisticians, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue has 4,420, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont has 4,570, Boston-Cambridge-Newton has 4,510, and San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad has 4,410. Lexington Park has the smallest listed employment count at 1,350. These differences in employment counts exist alongside substantial variation in median salaries. For example, Lexington Park’s employment of 1,350 is much smaller than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim’s 10,950, yet Lexington Park has a higher median salary at $131,600 compared with Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim’s $81,730.

Several coastal metros in the top ten combine higher-than-national pay with varying Geography Scores. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont has a median salary of $101,040, which is higher than the national median of $82,320, and a Geography Score of 56.95. Boston-Cambridge-Newton has a similar median salary of $101,540, also above the national median, and a Geography Score of 55.05. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, with a median salary of $108,920, has a Geography Score of 57.40, which is higher than both San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont’s 56.95 and Boston-Cambridge-Newton’s 55.05. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad reports a median salary of $100,130, above the national median, with a Geography Score of 53.45. These comparisons show that among coastal metros with median salaries above the national benchmark, there is still meaningful variation in LaborCove Geography Scores. Logisticians comparing these locations can see that similar pay levels do not imply identical scores or rankings.

LaborCove builds metro rankings for logisticians using authoritative U.S. labor-market data combined with its proprietary LaborCove Geography Score. For each metro, this article uses the supplied median annual salary, logistician employment count, and LaborCove Geography Score associated with occupation 13-1081. The national figures cited here — a median annual salary of $82,320, employment of 251,040, and a projected national employment growth rate of 16.7% — describe the occupation across the United States as a whole. The employment and salary values are based on Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) observations with a reference period of May 2025. The projected growth rate is a separate national occupational projection and is not an OEWS observation. LaborCove’s Geography Score is a composite measure that ranks locations relative to one another; its internal formula is not broken out in this article. Because the score reflects multiple inputs, a metro with a higher median salary or a larger employment count may still receive a lower Geography Score than a peer. These rankings should be interpreted as structured comparisons of pay, job counts, and Geography Scores, and used alongside personal and professional priorities when evaluating locations.