Best States for Industrial Production Managers: California Tops Overall, Delaware and Wyoming Pay the Most

Across the top 10 states, the data show that no single metric—salary, employment, or Geography Score—dominates the rankings. California leads the list with the highest Geography Score and the largest reported employment count, while Delaware and Wyoming stand out for higher median salaries paired with much smaller employment counts. Several states, including New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington, New Hampshire, and Colorado, have median salaries above the national median while differing noticeably in employment size, underscoring that LaborCove’s rankings are built from multiple dimensions rather than salary alone.

Nationally, industrial production managers report a median annual salary of $126060 and employment of 246250 positions in the supplied data. The national projected employment growth rate for this occupation is 1.9%, and this projection applies to the occupation across the country as a whole rather than to any specific state. The 10 states highlighted in this article represent the top LaborCove Geography Scores among 49 available geographies. Within this group, the largest single state employment count is 25130 positions, reported in California, which aligns with California’s role at the top of the rankings. When comparing states to the national picture, some top‑ranked states have median salaries above the national median, while others are closer to it. This mix illustrates that a state’s overall position in the LaborCove rankings reflects more than just a simple salary comparison to the national benchmark.

California holds Rank #1 among the 10 states, with a LaborCove Geography Score of 72.13. It reports a median annual salary of $132620 and an employment count of 25130 industrial production manager positions. California’s median salary is higher than the national median of $126060, and its employment count is the largest among the top‑ranked states in this dataset. Texas ranks #2 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 63.13. Texas shows a median salary of $130890 and employment of 21200 positions. Like California, Texas has a median salary above the national median and a substantially larger employment count than most other states in the top 10. Comparing the two leaders directly, California’s median salary of $132620 is higher than Texas’s $130890, and California’s employment count of 25130 is larger than Texas’s 21200. Both states also have median salaries above the national figure of $126060, situating them as large‑scale markets in this ranking set.

New Jersey ranks #3 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 58.81. It reports a median salary of $147260 and an employment count of 6780. New Jersey’s median salary is higher than both the national median of $126060 and California’s $132620, while its employment count is smaller than California’s 25130 and Texas’s 21200. Massachusetts follows at Rank #4 with a Geography Score of 57.93, a median salary of $148050, and employment of 4470. Its median salary is higher than the national median and also higher than California’s median. Compared with New Jersey, Massachusetts has a slightly higher median salary but a smaller employment count. New York appears at Rank #10 with a Geography Score of 47.24, median salary of $130470, and employment of 6630. New York’s median salary is above the national median but below the median salaries reported in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Its employment count is smaller than California’s and Texas’s counts but close in scale to New Jersey’s 6780 positions.

Washington ranks #5 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 54.51, a median salary of $145210, and employment of 4760. Washington’s median salary is higher than the national median of $126060 and higher than California’s $132620, while its employment count is smaller than California’s and Texas’s but larger than the employment counts reported for several smaller states in the top 10. Colorado, at Rank #9 with a Geography Score of 47.61, reports a median salary of $141020 and employment of 1730 industrial production manager positions. Colorado’s median salary is above the national median, and its employment count is smaller than those reported in California, Texas, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington, and New York. Within this western group, Washington’s Geography Score of 54.51 is higher than Colorado’s 47.61, and Washington’s employment count of 4760 is also larger than Colorado’s 1730. Both states, however, share the characteristic of median salaries above the national figure.

Wyoming holds Rank #6 with a LaborCove Geography Score of 51.16, a median annual salary of $151490, and employment of 390. Wyoming’s median salary is higher than the national median of $126060 and higher than California’s $132620. Its employment count, however, is smaller than those of all other top‑10 states except Delaware. New Hampshire is Ranked #7 with a Geography Score of 50.09, median salary of $146590, and employment of 1540. Its median salary is higher than the national median and higher than California’s median salary, while its employment count is smaller than the counts for California, Texas, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado, and New York. Delaware ranks #8 with a Geography Score of 49.36, a median salary of $153000, and employment of 370. Delaware’s median salary is higher than the national median and higher than California’s $132620. Its employment count of 370 is smaller than the employment counts reported for all other states in the top 10, including Wyoming’s 390. Among these three states, Delaware reports the highest median salary at $153000, followed by Wyoming at $151490 and New Hampshire at $146590. Delaware’s employment count is smaller than Wyoming’s and New Hampshire’s, while Wyoming’s employment count is smaller than New Hampshire’s.

The top 10 states for industrial production managers span Geography Scores from 72.13 in California down to 47.24 in New York. Texas, with a score of 63.13, is the only other state in this group above 60, while New Jersey at 58.81, Massachusetts at 57.93, and Washington at 54.51 round out the upper half of the ranking. In the middle of the pack, Wyoming’s Geography Score of 51.16 is higher than New Hampshire’s 50.09 and Delaware’s 49.36. Colorado’s score of 47.61 and New York’s 47.24 are the lowest scores within this top‑10 set, though both still rank above the remaining 39 geographies not listed here. These score differences underscore that high salaries alone do not determine the overall LaborCove ranking. For example, Delaware reports the highest median salary among the top 10 states but ranks #8 with a Geography Score of 49.36, below the scores of California, Texas, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington, Wyoming, and New Hampshire.

LaborCove builds these state rankings for industrial production managers from authoritative labor‑market data combined with our LaborCove Geography Score methodology. For this article, we use national and state‑level figures on median annual salary and employment for industrial production managers, along with a national projected employment growth rate for the occupation. The underlying occupational employment and wage statistics refer to May 2025 observations, while the reported national projection is a separate forward‑looking estimate for the occupation as a whole. The LaborCove Geography Score synthesizes these and potentially other underlying indicators into a single value for each state, which we use to rank the top 10 states. Because the internal weighting of individual metrics within the Geography Score is not supplied, this article focuses on observable differences in salaries, employment counts, and scores rather than attributing rank changes to any one factor. These rankings are a structured snapshot of the labor market and should be considered alongside individual career priorities such as preferred industries, personal circumstances, and non‑labor‑market factors that fall outside the scope of this data.