Top Metros for Market Research Analysts: New York Ranks #1 as San Jose Offers Highest Pay

Across the United States, market research analysts and marketing specialists have a national median annual salary of $78,760 and national employment of 899,580. The occupation also has a supplied national projected employment growth rate of 6.7%, which applies to the occupation as a whole rather than to any specific state or metro. Within that national context, LaborCove’s metro rankings show that the leading markets differ sharply on median pay, employment counts, and Geography Scores. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ holds the #1 spot with the highest LaborCove Geography Score among the listed metros and the largest supplied employment count, while San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA stands out for having the highest median salary in the top 10 but a smaller employment count than New York and several others. The top 10 metros together illustrate that a higher salary does not automatically translate into the top overall ranking. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA and Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH both combine six-figure median salaries with mid-range Geography Scores in this group, while Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN rank in the top 10 with median salaries closer to the national figure but larger employment counts than several higher-paying metros.

Nationally, market research analysts and marketing specialists have a median annual salary of $78,760. Within the top 10 metros, several locations have median salaries above this national benchmark, including New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ at $100,520; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at $141,960; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA at $123,250; Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH at $102,390; Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA at $102,170; and Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO at $99,040. Other metros in the top 10 sit closer to the national median. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has a median salary of $82,990, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN is at $80,400, San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA is at $79,440, and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL is at $78,990. All four of these metros have median pay values numerically above the national figure, but by smaller margins than the six-figure metros. On employment, the national total of 899,580 jobs underscores how much larger the national market is than any individual metro. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has the largest supplied employment count among the top 10 at 79,290, followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA at 39,390; Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH at 32,310; Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN at 30,970; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA at 24,120; Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA at 18,030; and Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO at 17,000. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has a smaller supplied employment count of 12,710 than each of these metros. Employment counts for San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL are not supplied, so no employment comparison can be made for those metros.

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ is ranked #1 in LaborCove’s metro list with a Geography Score of 75.72, the highest among the top 10 metros supplied. Its median salary of $100,520 is above the national median of $78,760 and also above several other metros in the top 10, such as Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA at $82,990 and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN at $80,400. However, New York does not have the highest median salary in this group. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has a higher median pay of $141,960, and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA has $123,250, yet both metros rank below New York in the Geography Score ranking at #2 and #3 respectively. This demonstrates that in LaborCove’s framework, the metro with the highest salary is not automatically ranked #1 overall. New York also stands out for having the largest supplied employment count in the top 10 at 79,290, which is higher than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA at 39,390 and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN at 30,970. Within the limits of the supplied data, this gives New York a substantially larger reported employment base for this occupation than any other top-10 metro.

Three California metros appear in the top 10: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA; and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA. San Jose has the highest median salary in the list at $141,960 and a Geography Score of 63.54, placing it at rank #2. San Francisco’s median salary of $123,250 is also well above the national median and is higher than Los Angeles’s median of $82,990. Despite their high salaries, San Jose and San Francisco do not occupy the top Geography Score position. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has a lower median salary than San Jose and San Francisco but ranks higher with a Geography Score of 75.72 and the #1 rank. San Jose’s Geography Score of 63.54 is higher than San Francisco’s 60.11, placing San Jose at #2 and San Francisco at #3. Los Angeles illustrates another pattern: it has a larger supplied employment count of 39,390 than San Jose’s 12,710 and Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO’s 17,000, but its median salary of $82,990 remains lower than San Jose’s $141,960, San Francisco’s $123,250, and Denver’s $99,040. With a Geography Score of 52.11, Los Angeles ranks #5 in this top-10 group.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA both combine six-figure median salaries with mid-range positions in the top-10 ranking. Boston’s median salary of $102,390 is slightly higher than Seattle’s $102,170. Boston’s Geography Score is 55.00 with a #4 rank, while Seattle’s Geography Score is 49.19 with a #7 rank. Boston’s supplied employment count of 32,310 is higher than Seattle’s 18,030 and higher than Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO’s 17,000, while remaining below New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ at 79,290 and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA at 39,390. This positions Boston among the metros with both substantial employment counts and salaries above the national median. Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO also appears in the top 10 with a median salary of $99,040, which is higher than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA at $82,990 and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN at $80,400 but below San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA at $123,250 and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at $141,960. Denver has a Geography Score of 46.97 with a #9 rank in this list.

Two metros in the top 10—Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN—have median salaries close to the national figure of $78,760. Los Angeles is at $82,990 and Chicago is at $80,400, both above the national benchmark but noticeably below the six-figure metros such as New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ at $100,520 and Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH at $102,390. Chicago’s employment count of 30,970 is smaller than New York’s 79,290 and Los Angeles’s 39,390 but larger than San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at 12,710 and Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO at 17,000. Its Geography Score of 46.06 places it at #10 in the top-10 ranking, below Denver’s Geography Score of 46.97 at #9. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL also cluster near the national median in terms of salary. San Diego has a median salary of $79,440 and a Geography Score of 50.12 at rank #6, while Miami has a median salary of $78,990 and a Geography Score of 47.50 at rank #8. Because employment counts for San Diego and Miami are not supplied, their employment levels cannot be compared with other metros in this list.

LaborCove’s rankings for market research analysts and marketing specialists draw on authoritative U.S. labor-market data and LaborCove’s proprietary Geography Score methodology. The national benchmarks in this article use observations from the U.S. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program with a reference period of May 2025. The report year of 2026 reflects LaborCove’s product and publication cycle, not the underlying OEWS observation date. The national projected employment growth rate of 6.7% is a separate occupational projection for the United States as a whole and is not an OEWS observation or a geographic forecast. For each metro, LaborCove incorporates the supplied median annual salary, employment count (when available), and the LaborCove Geography Score, which produces the metro rankings shown here. Geography Scores and ranks summarize how each metro performs in the LaborCove framework; they do not guarantee outcomes for any individual worker and should be considered alongside personal priorities such as preferred industries, local networks, and non-labor-market factors that are outside the scope of this data.