Best States for Credit Analysts: New York Tops High‑Pay Markets Nationwide

Across the country, credit analysts see a national median salary of $83,510 and national employment of 64,390, with projected national employment declining by 4.4%. Within that context, all of the top 10 states in the LaborCove rankings report median salaries above the national median. The rankings also highlight that LaborCove’s Geography Score does not simply track pay. New York has both the highest reported median salary and the highest Geography Score among the listed states, but other states with six‑figure or near‑six‑figure pay—such as California, Virginia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey—occupy different positions in the top 10. Employment counts also vary substantially, from New York’s 7,960 credit analyst roles down to 1,220 in New Jersey. For career planning, this means the “best” state depends on how you weigh compensation, size of the in‑state credit analyst workforce, and how highly LaborCove ranks that state overall. The sections below examine how the leading markets compare on each of those dimensions.

Nationally, credit analysts earn a median annual salary of $83,510, with 64,390 people employed in this occupation. National employment for credit analysts is projected to decline by 4.4%, which provides context for interpreting state‑level patterns without assigning that national projection to any specific state. Every state in the LaborCove top‑10 list reports a median salary above the national median. At the upper end, New York’s median salary of $133,270 is $49,760 above the national median, while Washington’s median of $91,160 is also higher than the national figure. Even states toward the middle of the top‑10 salary range, such as Texas at $78,730 and Florida at $78,360, can be compared directly with the national benchmark, though both have median salaries slightly below the national median. Employment concentrations also differ from the national picture. New York’s 7,960 credit analyst roles represent the single largest state employment count in the supplied data, but they account for only a portion of the 64,390 positions reported nationally. Other top‑10 states, such as California with 5,260 and Texas with 6,130, also represent substantial shares of the reported national workforce, while smaller states in the ranking, such as Massachusetts with 1,400 and New Jersey with 1,220, contribute fewer roles in absolute terms.

New York ranks #1 in the LaborCove state rankings for credit analysts with a Geography Score of 86.40. This is the highest Geography Score among the listed top‑10 states. New York also reports the highest median salary in the group at $133,270. On employment, New York’s 7,960 credit analyst roles are the largest state employment count supplied in this dataset and therefore define the noted largest employment market value of 7,960. New York’s employment count is higher than California’s 5,260 and higher than Texas’s 6,130. Compared with the national benchmarks, New York’s median salary of $133,270 is higher than the national median of $83,510, and its 7,960 jobs form a substantial portion of the 64,390 positions reported nationally for this occupation.

California ranks #2 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 60.93, a median salary of $97,860, and employment of 5,260 credit analysts. Texas ranks #3 with a Geography Score of 52.43, a median salary of $78,730, and employment of 6,130. Florida, ranked #9 with a Geography Score of 40.70, reports a median salary of $78,360 and employment of 4,040. Among these three states, Texas has the largest employment count at 6,130, followed by California at 5,260 and then Florida at 4,040. In terms of median salary, California’s $97,860 is higher than the national median of $83,510 and also higher than both Texas’s $78,730 and Florida’s $78,360. Texas’s median salary is slightly higher than Florida’s. These comparisons show that within the top‑10 states, large employment counts do not always coincide with the highest salaries or highest Geography Scores. California has a smaller employment count than Texas but ranks higher overall and reports a higher median salary, while Florida’s employment count trails both California and Texas and comes with a lower median salary than both.

Several top‑10 states combine relatively high median salaries with moderate employment counts compared with New York, California, Texas, and Florida. Virginia, ranked #4 with a Geography Score of 48.32, reports a median salary of $102,430 and employment of 2,460. North Carolina, ranked #5 with a Geography Score of 46.92, has a median salary of $94,570 and employment of 3,270. Massachusetts and New Jersey also fit into this pattern. Massachusetts ranks #6 with a Geography Score of 44.92, a median salary of $97,080, and employment of 1,400. New Jersey ranks #7 with a Geography Score of 44.72, a median salary of $100,940, and employment of 1,220. All four of these states report median salaries above the national median of $83,510. Within this group, Virginia’s median salary of $102,430 is higher than North Carolina’s $94,570 and higher than Massachusetts’s $97,080. New Jersey’s median salary of $100,940 is higher than North Carolina’s and higher than Massachusetts’s but slightly lower than Virginia’s. Employment counts in this cluster are all lower than those in New York, California, Texas, and Florida, with New Jersey’s 1,220 positions being the smallest employment count among the top‑10 states listed.

Illinois and Washington occupy the #8 and #10 positions, respectively, rounding out the top‑10 list. Illinois has a LaborCove Geography Score of 41.17, a median salary of $84,990, and employment of 3,130 credit analysts. Washington has a Geography Score of 40.11, a median salary of $91,160, and employment of 1,280. Illinois’s median salary of $84,990 is higher than the national median of $83,510, but it is lower than Washington’s median salary of $91,160. Employment counts move in the opposite direction: Illinois’s 3,130 credit analyst roles are more than double Washington’s 1,280. These contrasts illustrate that states near the middle and lower end of the top‑10 ranking can still have salaries above the national benchmark, while also differing meaningfully from one another in both pay and employment levels.

The LaborCove Geography Score captures how each state ranks for credit analysts in our scoring framework, using inputs that include median salary and employment along with other internal factors. In this top‑10 list, scores range from 86.40 for #1 New York down to 40.11 for #10 Washington. New York’s Geography Score of 86.40 is higher than the scores for all other states in the top‑10 set, including California at 60.93 and Texas at 52.43. At the lower end of the top 10, Illinois at 41.17 and Washington at 40.11 have Geography Scores that trail the rest of the group. Because the Geography Score is a composite measure, it should be considered alongside the underlying salary and employment metrics presented here and weighed against individual relocation priorities, risk tolerance, and career plans.

LaborCove’s state rankings for credit analysts are built from authoritative labor‑market sources combined with the LaborCove Geography Score. For each state, we use median annual salary, employment counts, and our composite Geography Score to produce a ranked list of locations. The national benchmarks in this article reflect a national median annual salary of $83,510 and national employment of 64,390 for credit analysts, along with a projected national employment growth rate of -4.4%. The underlying occupational observations used for these benchmarks refer to May 2025 (2025‑05). The -4.4% figure is a national projection for this occupation and is not applied to any individual state. Because individual circumstances, preferences, and constraints differ, these rankings should be used as one input into a broader decision that may include factors beyond the scope of LaborCove’s dataset. LaborCove does not model cost of living, taxes, or personal career fit in this ranking, and the results should not be interpreted as predictions about any person’s chances of finding employment in a particular state.