Top Metros for Social and Community Service Managers: New York Leads as Several Smaller Hubs Top $100K

Across these top 10 metros, LaborCove’s data shows that salaries for social and community service managers are consistently above the national median, while employment counts and Geography Scores vary more widely. New York-Newark-Jersey City combines the highest LaborCove Geography Score in the ranking with the largest reported employment count, while Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is the only other listed metro with a five-figure employment count. At the same time, Lansing-East Lansing, Salem, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria all post six-figure median salaries but occupy different positions in the top 10, illustrating that salary alone does not determine the LaborCove ranking. For career planning, these results underline the importance of looking at multiple dimensions: national context, local pay levels, current employment counts where supplied, and how each metro scores in LaborCove’s Geography framework.

Before comparing metros, it helps to anchor the occupation nationally. Social and community service managers have a national median annual salary of $80,390, with 209,330 people employed across the United States. LaborCove’s evidence also includes a projected national employment growth rate of 6.4% for this occupation. These national figures provide a baseline to interpret metro-level results. Every metro in the top 10 has a reported median salary above the national median, but they differ in how many jobs are currently counted and in their LaborCove Geography Scores.

LaborCove’s top-ranked metro for social and community service managers is New York-Newark-Jersey City, with a Geography Score of 82.94. This is the highest score among the listed metros and is notably above the second-ranked Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, which has a Geography Score of 65.73. The gap between New York and Lansing-East Lansing, ranked third with a Geography Score of 65.28, is also substantial. Across the rest of the top 10, Geography Scores are more closely grouped. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (65.73) and Lansing-East Lansing (65.28) form a tight pair near the top, followed by San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont at 57.05 and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue at 55.92. By the lower end of the top 10, scores step down to 54.61 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, 53.74 in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, 53.26 in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, 52.14 in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, and 51.97 in Salem. These score differences show that New York stands out in LaborCove’s framework, while ranks two through ten are separated by narrower score intervals, especially from second through eighth place.

The national median salary of $80,390 serves as a reference point for the pay levels seen in the top metros. All ten listed metros have median salaries above this national figure. Among them, four metros report median salaries above $100,000: Lansing-East Lansing at $110,570, Salem at $110,210, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue at $106,400, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria at $101,240. New York-Newark-Jersey City, at $100,570, and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, at $98,030, are below Lansing, Salem, Seattle, and Washington on median salary but remain well above the national median. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim ($87,100), Wenatchee-East Wenatchee ($89,900), San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont ($93,410), and Boston-Cambridge-Newton ($85,430) round out the top 10 with median salaries that exceed the national benchmark but fall below the six-figure metros such as Lansing-East Lansing and Salem.

Employment counts, where supplied, add another dimension to the comparison. New York-Newark-Jersey City has 16,090 employed social and community service managers, which is both the largest count in this top-10 list and matches the largest employment market figure noted in the broader dataset. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has the second-largest employment count among the listed metros at 12,400. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, with 5,080 employed social and community service managers, and Boston-Cambridge-Newton, with 5,730, form a mid-range group on employment among the metros where this information is supplied. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (2,040), Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (2,920), San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (1,340), and Salem (460) have smaller reported employment counts than New York and Los Angeles. For Lansing-East Lansing and Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, employment counts are not supplied in the evidence, so no direct employment comparison can be made for those two metros relative to the others.

The top 10 results illustrate that the highest median salary does not automatically correspond to the highest LaborCove ranking. Lansing-East Lansing, with a median salary of $110,570, ranks third overall, while Salem, at $110,210, ranks tenth. In contrast, New York-Newark-Jersey City ranks first with a median salary of $100,570, which is lower than both Lansing and Salem. Similarly, some metros combine relatively high salaries with mid-tier Geography Scores within the top 10. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue has a median salary of $106,400 and a Geography Score of 55.92, while Washington-Arlington-Alexandria has a median salary of $101,240 and a Geography Score of 53.74, placing them below New York, Los Angeles, and Lansing in the overall ranking. These comparisons show that LaborCove’s Geography Score reflects a broader scoring framework than pay alone. When interpreting the rankings, social and community service managers can weigh the reported salary, employment counts where available, and the Geography Score together, depending on which factors matter most for their own decision-making.

LaborCove uses authoritative labor-market data for social and community service managers (occupation code 11-9151) and applies its internal Geography Scoring methodology to compare metro areas. National figures in this Insight reflect a median annual salary of $80,390, employment of 209,330, and a projected national employment growth rate of 6.4%. The underlying occupational employment and wage statistics are based on observations from May 2025; the 2026 report year reflects the publication and product year, not the observation period. For metros, LaborCove’s dataset includes median annual salary, current employment counts where available, and a LaborCove Geography Score for each of 384 geographies. These inputs are combined into an overall ranking, but this article does not break down the weight of each metric in the scoring process. Rankings and scores are intended as structured decision support and should be considered alongside individual priorities such as preferred region, role fit, and non-labor-market factors that are outside the scope of this data.