Five private-sector industries in Snohomish County recorded average annual pay ranging from about $122,400 to $150,500, putting them at the top of the county’s industry wage figures.
The 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the latest complete calendar year available, show that manufacturing remains a heavyweight in both pay and employment. But two other industries finished ahead of it in average wages—and one of the five leaders employed fewer than 150 people locally.
Across Snohomish County’s private sector, average annual pay was $83,497. Here’s which industries cleared that benchmark by the widest margins, what the work involves and where local employers and training programs enter the picture.
A quick translation of the government wage measure: these averages combine different occupations, experience levels and work schedules, including covered payments such as bonuses; they are not median earnings, starting offers, take-home pay or complete benefits packages.
Finance and Insurance — Average Annual Pay: $122,355
Finance and insurance opens the countdown with average annual pay of $122,355 across 8,460 private-sector jobs in Snohomish County in 2025.
The sector’s average pay increased 5.7% from the previous year, while annual average employment edged up 0.4%.
Banking With an Everett Address
This industry covers banking, lending, insurance and investment-related activities. Its local presence includes more than neighborhood branches handling deposits and withdrawals.
Coastal Community Bank and its parent company are headquartered in Everett. Alongside its community banking business, Coastal provides banking services that allow financial technology partners to offer banking products to their own customers.
That combination gives the local industry a connection to both traditional business lending and digital financial services. It also illustrates why “finance” describes a broader business than the bank counter most customers encounter.
Different Work Behind the Same Average
Banking operations, lending and insurance involve different responsibilities, so a sector average cannot tell an applicant what a particular role should pay.
For readers exploring business education, Edmonds College offers business management and business transfer programs, including an associate degree designed for transfer and a business management certificate.
Those are broad preparation routes rather than a single prescribed entrance into finance. Comparing a specific position’s required skills and advertised pay will reveal much more than assuming every job in the industry comes with its six-figure average.
Utilities — Average Annual Pay: $125,133
Utilities averaged $125,133 in annual pay in 2025, placing fourth. But this is easily the smallest industry in the countdown: its private-sector figures covered just 146 jobs.
That small number deserves an explanation before anyone starts counting utility trucks.
The PUD Is Outside This Comparison
Snohomish County PUD is publicly owned, so its workforce is excluded from these private-sector figures. The average here should not be presented as what PUD employees earn.
The utilities sector includes electricity, natural gas, water and sewage services. One private provider with a local service connection is Puget Sound Energy, which identifies Snohomish County as part of its natural-gas territory.
Local private-utilities average pay increased 2.3% from 2024, while annual average employment fell 2.7%. The high average describes a narrow slice of the county’s overall utility workforce.
Employer Training Can Be Part of the Route
Utility careers can involve employer-based technical training. PSE’s career information for veterans identifies a Gas Worker Trainee program and says eligible veterans can use GI Bill benefits after selection.
That establishes a training route within a provider serving the county, rather than an assurance of a current local opening.
For someone interested in the field, the practical questions concern the specialty, selection requirements and work location. A regional employer’s training opportunity may involve a different commute—or a different county—than an applicant expects.
Manufacturing — Average Annual Pay: $125,920
Manufacturing averaged $125,920 across 55,801 Snohomish County private-sector jobs in 2025. That is more than one in five of the county’s private-sector jobs.
The industry narrowly edged utilities in average pay, but its employment footprint was in another league entirely.
Aerospace Gives the Numbers a Local Face
Boeing’s Everett operations are a familiar example: the company builds its 777 family at the Everett factory.
More recently, Boeing announced in July 2026 that production had begun on the first 737 MAX airplane built on its new Everett North Line. That development came after the wage year examined here.
The manufacturing category includes much more than aircraft assembly, and its average combines different production, technical and other roles. Local average pay rose 7.3% from 2024, while annual average employment was nearly unchanged, down 0.1%.
Hands-On Training at Paine Field
The Washington Aerospace Training and Research Center, operated by Edmonds College, offers manufacturing training at Paine Field in Everett.
Its pathways begin with a four-week online manufacturing core, followed by specialty study combining online instruction with hands-on lab work. Options include assembly, electrical assembly, tooling and composites, with additional prerequisites applying to quality assurance.
For someone interested in production work, that offers a substantially different education route from a four-year degree. The next question is which specialty matches the work an employer actually needs—and what that particular job pays.
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services — Average Annual Pay: $148,949
With average annual pay of $148,949, professional, scientific and technical services finished second in 2025. It accounted for 16,406 local private-sector jobs.
The name is a mouthful. The businesses inside it are considerably more recognizable.
Engineering Firms, Law Offices and More
The federal industry category includes engineering and architectural services, legal practices, accounting, computer systems design, consulting and scientific research.
A local example is Reid Middleton’s Everett headquarters, where the engineering and surveying firm says its services and group directors are represented alongside administrative, marketing, human resources and information technology teams.
That is a useful reminder that a professional-services business needs people doing several kinds of work. Its industry classification does not mean everyone on the payroll performs the same technical specialty.
A Degree Path That Stays Local
For readers interested in engineering, Washington State University’s mechanical engineering program in Everett offers a two-year, full-time bachelor’s degree completion route for transfer students.
It is the upper portion of an engineering degree, rather than a two-year program beginning from scratch. Prospective students need to examine the prerequisite coursework and transfer requirements.
Locally, the broader professional-services sector recorded a 9% increase in average annual pay and 1.3% growth in annual average employment from 2024.
Both measures increased, though those totals do not establish which specialties are hiring now. The strongest career lead remains the particular profession and its qualifications, rather than the sector’s lengthy name.
Information — Average Annual Pay: $150,488
Information takes the top spot with average annual pay of $150,488 across 3,650 Snohomish County private-sector jobs in 2025.
It finished just $1,539 ahead of professional, scientific and technical services. This was a close finish, rather than a runaway.
The Internet Connection Is Literal
The information sector covers telecommunications, software publishing, broadcasting, publishing and data-related services. It is broader than software companies alone.
One local example is Ziply Fiber’s January 2025 partnership announcement with Snohomish County. The planned project called for more than 27 miles of fiber around Index and the Highway 2 corridor, with access for more than 950 households and businesses when completed.
That announcement illustrates the infrastructure side of the industry. It does not establish the project’s current completion status or explain the countywide wage figure.
Technical Skills Can Travel Across Industries
For readers exploring related work, Everett Community College offers information technology degrees and certificates. Its network administrator certificate includes networking coursework and Cisco certification testing.
The college also identifies potential credit for qualifying industry certifications or prior learning, which could matter to someone bringing existing experience back to school.
Information’s local average annual pay increased 19.4% from 2024, while employment rose 5.2%. Those increases are substantial, but the sector figure still combines different businesses and occupations.
Network skills can also lead to work in manufacturing, health care or other industries. An IT job’s industry depends on the establishment employing the person.
What Snohomish County’s Highest-Paying Industries Reveal
Together, these five sectors averaged 84,463 jobs, accounting for approximately 32.8% of the county’s private-sector employment, calculated from the same federal dataset.
Manufacturing supplied most of that total. It had more than twice as many jobs as the other four wage leaders combined—a telling measure of how heavily it shapes the county’s employment landscape.
Its local average annual pay also exceeded the matching $102,940 statewide manufacturing average in BLS’s 2025 Washington figures. By contrast, the other four featured sectors had local averages below their respective statewide figures.
That comparison gives the county’s manufacturing strength additional context, without establishing why individual employers or occupations pay what they do.
For jobseekers, the distinction between industry size and industry pay is useful. A high average across 146 utility jobs describes a very different local market from an average spread across nearly 56,000 manufacturing jobs.
Neither figure counts vacancies, but together they show why the size of an industry belongs beside its paycheck.
What Could Your Next Move Look Like?
If one of these industries has you considering a career change, start with the actual jobs: their advertised pay, qualifications, schedules and locations.
An aerospace certificate at Paine Field presents a different commitment from completing an engineering degree or pursuing employer-based utility training. Existing experience may also change how much preparation you need.
Snohomish County has several routes into these fields, but choosing one means looking past the sector average. The big number gets your attention. The work, the requirements and the offer determine whether it deserves your next move.
