Five Whatcom County industries recorded average annual pay ranging from about $90,700 to $180,400, leading the county’s broad private-sector industries with publicly available wage figures.
The 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the latest complete calendar year available, reveal some interesting contrasts. Construction nearly matched professional services in average pay, while the industry at the top employed far fewer people than either.
Average annual pay across Whatcom County’s private sector was $67,116. Four sectors have withheld figures, so this countdown compares published wages rather than claiming to settle the order across every industry.
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 salaries, take-home pay or complete benefits packages.
Management of Companies and Enterprises — Average Annual Pay: $90,672
Management of companies and enterprises opens the countdown at $90,672 in average annual pay in 2025. Its local employment base was small: 298 private-sector jobs.
That is an attractive average spread across a relatively narrow part of Whatcom County’s economy.
Headquarters Have Their Own Category
The federal industry definition covers establishments that oversee companies or hold controlling ownership interests, including corporate operations responsible for strategic planning and organizational decisions.
It does not gather every employee with “manager” in their title. Someone managing a retail establishment generally remains in retail’s industry figures; the classification follows the establishment’s business activity.
Local average annual pay increased 3.2% from 2024, while annual average employment declined 8.3%. The average paycheck rose even as the number of covered jobs fell.
Business Preparation in Bellingham
Western Washington University offers a management concentration within its business administration degree, alongside programs in areas such as international business and operations management.
That gives students local options for studying how organizations function. Western’s management department also offers business and sustainability programs, reflecting the different directions business education can take.
Those skills apply across industries, not exclusively to corporate headquarters. For a prospective student, the useful distinction is between preparing for particular business responsibilities and assuming a management degree points toward one small employment category.
The degree may travel widely. This industry label is much narrower.
Construction — Average Annual Pay: $94,992
Construction averaged $94,992 across 7,930 Whatcom County private-sector jobs in 2025—the largest employment base among the five featured industries.
It also recorded growth in both measures: average annual pay increased 9.7%, while annual average employment rose 4.8% from 2024.
A Substantial Local Business
Construction covers building work, heavy and civil engineering projects, and specialty trades. Its payroll reaches beyond the most visible activity on a jobsite.
Dawson Construction’s Bellingham office, for example, serves Whatcom County and surrounding Northwest Washington. The general contractor says it maintains a regional database of more than 600 qualified subcontractors, illustrating how one construction business connects with a much broader network.
Whatcom County’s construction average also exceeded the comparable $89,719 statewide private-sector figure in BLS’s Washington data.
Learning a Trade Takes More Than Picking a Program
Bellingham Technical College’s electrician program offers hands-on preparation in electrical systems, including residential, commercial and industrial applications.
For someone considering that route, education and professional certification are separate pieces of the decision. Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries outlines experience, training and examination requirements for becoming a general journey-level electrician.
A college program should therefore be evaluated alongside the apprenticeship and certification route it supports.
Construction contains several careers with different entry requirements. Its industry average is a useful starting point, but the particular trade determines the preparation—and the workday.
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services — Average Annual Pay: $95,343
Professional, scientific and technical services averaged $95,343 across 4,571 local private-sector jobs in 2025.
That placed it just $351 ahead of construction. Despite their different labels, the two sectors finished remarkably close in average annual pay.
Familiar Work Behind a Formal Name
The professional-services category includes law firms, accounting practices, engineering, architecture, computer systems design, consulting, scientific research and veterinary services.
That makes it a broad collection of expertise sold to businesses, households and other clients. It is not a single profession with one education requirement.
Locally, average annual pay increased 2.1% from 2024, while annual average employment rose 2.9%. Both increased, though neither figure establishes which specialties currently have openings.
Surveying Offers a Different Technical Route
One local education connection is Bellingham Technical College’s associate degree in engineering technology–geomatics.
Geomatics involves surveying, mapping and the information used to describe physical locations. BTC’s program includes training in geographic information systems, AutoCAD and GPS, along with Washington laws and standards concerning surveying, boundaries and map preparation.
The college identifies possible employment settings including surveying and engineering firms, construction companies and public agencies. Those workplaces can fall into different industry categories.
It is a useful example of technical preparation that can involve both computer work and fieldwork. The curriculum makes the opportunity more concrete than the sector’s lengthy name: measuring land, preparing maps and working with the data behind physical projects.
Finance and Insurance — Average Annual Pay: $119,277
Finance and insurance recorded average annual pay of $119,277 across 2,477 Whatcom County private-sector jobs in 2025.
Its average pay rose 12.4% from the previous year, while annual average employment declined 3.7%. The wage increase was substantial, but it did not accompany a larger local workforce.
Local Banking Has a Corporate Side
The sector encompasses banking, lending, insurance and investment-related activities. Its work stretches from customer transactions to business financing and financial risk.
Peoples Bank lists its corporate office on Woburn Street in Bellingham. The bank’s company history describes a locally owned operation serving businesses and families across Whatcom County and several other Washington counties.
That corporate presence adds another dimension to the industry’s local footprint. Banking involves more than the branch visit most customers see.
Finance Study Without Leaving the County
Western Washington University offers a finance concentration in business administration and a financial economics degree. Those provide distinct academic options for readers interested in financial businesses and decision-making.
The same university also offers accounting programs, although an accounting firm belongs to a different industry category from a bank. Similar skills can therefore connect with different workplaces—and different industry averages.
For someone exploring the field, it helps to narrow the interest first: lending, insurance, financial analysis and customer banking involve different responsibilities.
The six-figure sector average gets attention. Understanding which work you actually want to do makes the education choice more useful.
Information — Average Annual Pay: $180,429
Information led Whatcom County’s published private-sector industry figures at $180,429 in average annual pay in 2025.
The figure covered 1,202 jobs, making this a considerably smaller employment base than construction or professional services. It was also more than double the county’s overall private-sector average.
A Broader Business Than “Tech”
The information sector includes software publishing, telecommunications, broadcasting, publishing and data-related services. Calling the whole category “technology” would lose some of that range.
A recognizable local connection is Bible-study software company Logos, which identifies Bellingham as its flagship office.
That establishes a local software business, not what the company pays or how much it contributes to the industry average. The county’s published totals do not identify individual employers’ contributions.
A Sharp Pay Increase With Little Employment Change
Information’s average annual pay increased 56.1% from 2024, while annual average employment edged up 0.6%. The data establish that contrast without explaining its cause.
For readers exploring related technical skills, Bellingham Technical College offers computer networking degrees and certificates, including cloud computing and programming certificates and a transfer pathway toward Western’s cybersecurity degree.
Those routes can lead toward work across several industries. A network specialist employed by a manufacturer, for example, belongs to a different industry setting from someone at a telecommunications business.
That distinction is especially useful here: a technical skill, an occupation and an industry are connected, but they are not interchangeable.
Where the Pay Leaders Fit in Whatcom County’s Economy
Together, the five featured sectors averaged 16,478 jobs, or approximately 21.1% of Whatcom County’s private-sector employment, calculated from the same federal dataset.
Health care and social assistance alone accounted for 13,741 jobs, averaging $70,046 annually. Retail trade supplied another 10,301 jobs, with average annual pay of $43,565.
Manufacturing, meanwhile, averaged $82,810 across 9,189 jobs. It employed more people than any individual sector featured here, while finishing below the published wage cutoff.
Those differences explain why a list of wage leaders can look quite different from a list of the county’s biggest employment sectors. A comparatively small industry can post a striking average; a much larger industry can contain a wide range of occupations and pay levels.
For a jobseeker, industry size adds perspective to the headline number. It does not reveal vacancies, but it helps distinguish a broad local employment base from a small concentration of highly paid work.
What Would the Work Look Like for You?
If one of these fields has you considering a change, start with a specific job rather than an industry average. Compare its advertised pay, qualifications, schedule and location with what you can realistically commit to.
Whatcom County offers local routes into business, trades and technical work, but they involve different investments of time and money. Existing experience may also change where you begin.
A big industry average is worth a look. A clear route into work that suits you is worth a closer one.
