Top Metros for Management Analysts in 2026: New York, Washington, and High‑Pay Hubs Like Boston and San Jose

Across the top 10 metro areas for management analysts, LaborCove’s rankings highlight different combinations of salary, scale, and Geography Score rather than a single dominant pattern. New York-Newark-Jersey City leads the list by score and employment, while several West Coast and Northeast metros report higher median salaries than the national figure. The data also shows that the highest Geography Score does not always coincide with the highest salary, and that large employment markets do not automatically occupy the top rank. For career planning, this makes it useful to consider how each metro balances salary levels against its employment count and overall Geography Score, using the national occupation benchmarks as context rather than as local forecasts.

Before comparing metros, it helps to anchor the occupation nationally. For management analysts, the supplied national median annual salary is $101,860. National employment is reported at 898,280, and the projected national employment growth rate is 8.8%. These national benchmarks describe the occupation across the United States as a whole. They are not state or metro growth rates, and they do not indicate how fast any specific metro area is expected to add or lose management analyst roles. Instead, they serve as a reference point when evaluating how the top-ranked metros compare on salary and employment for this field.

Among the 386 metro areas evaluated, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ holds the #1 rank for management analysts, with a LaborCove Geography Score of 83.43. It also has the largest reported employment count in the dataset for this occupation, at 67,630, and a median annual salary of $124,390. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 77.09. Its median salary of $126,830 is higher than New York’s $124,390, while its employment count of 62,360 is slightly lower than New York’s 67,630. Both metros sit well above the national median salary of $101,860, combining large employment bases with salaries that exceed the national figure. These comparisons show that New York’s top ranking is paired with the largest employment count among the listed metros, while Washington pairs the second-highest Geography Score with a median salary that is higher than New York’s according to the supplied data.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH holds the #3 rank with a LaborCove Geography Score of 66.02. Its median annual salary for management analysts is $135,640, which is higher than both New York’s $124,390 and Washington’s $126,830, and also above the national median of $101,860. Boston’s reported employment count is 26,450, which is smaller than the employment counts in New York and Washington. On the West Coast, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA ranks #4 with a Geography Score of 63.22 and a median salary of $126,730. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ranks #5 with a Geography Score of 62.74 and the highest reported median salary among the top 10 metros at $136,670. San Jose’s median salary is higher than Boston’s $135,640 and San Francisco’s $126,730, while its employment count of 9,020 is lower than Boston’s 26,450 and San Francisco’s 23,560. These figures underline that some metros with smaller employment counts—such as Boston and San Jose—have median salaries that are higher than those in larger employment markets like New York and Washington, based on the supplied data.

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA appears at #6 in the ranking, with a LaborCove Geography Score of 59.09. Its median annual salary for management analysts is $104,930, which is higher than the national median of $101,860. The reported employment count is 37,060, which is smaller than New York’s 67,630 and Washington’s 62,360 but larger than the employment counts for Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Atlanta. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN ranks #8 with a Geography Score of 57.27. Its median salary is $105,090, placing it above the national median as well. Chicago’s employment count is 37,510, which is slightly higher than Los Angeles’s 37,060 and lower than New York’s and Washington’s employment totals. Both Los Angeles and Chicago illustrate metros where employment counts are comparatively large among the top 10, while Geography Scores are mid-range within this group.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA holds the #7 rank with a LaborCove Geography Score of 57.85. Its median salary of $126,340 is higher than the national median of $101,860 and also higher than the median salaries in Los Angeles ($104,930), Chicago ($105,090), and Atlanta ($101,220). Seattle’s employment count is 16,930, which is lower than the counts reported for New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta, and higher than San Jose’s 9,020. Bloomington, IL ranks #9 with a Geography Score of 55.59 and a median salary of $113,110. Its employment count is not supplied, so Bloomington’s position in employment terms cannot be compared to the other metros beyond noting that it appears in the top 10 by Geography Score. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA completes the list at #10 with a Geography Score of 51.12. Its median salary of $101,220 is slightly below the national median of $101,860, and its employment count of 26,870 is close to Boston’s 26,450 according to the supplied data.

LaborCove’s metro rankings for management analysts are built from authoritative labor‑market data combined with the LaborCove Geography Score. For each of the 386 available metro areas, the dataset includes at least a ranking, a Geography Score, and typically a median annual salary and employment count. The Geography Score is a composite indicator produced by LaborCove to summarize how each metro compares on the underlying labor‑market measures for this occupation. The top 10 metros listed here are the highest-ranked in that scoring system, from #1 through #10. These rankings are designed as a structured comparison tool, not as a prediction of any individual’s job outcomes. Management analysts should consider how each metro’s salary levels, employment counts, and Geography Scores align with their own priorities, and use the national figures—$101,860 median salary, 898,280 employed, and 8.8% projected national employment growth—as broad occupational context rather than as local projections.