High employment levels can be a sign of a strong local economy. In times like these, a strong economy can be a major selling point when you’re thinking about a new career or a new home town. High employment levels mean people in the area are working and earning money. In turn, this means they are putting that money back into the local economy in terms of goods and services. That’s a good thing for almost any industry.

While there may be other areas in the country in which dental assistants have more earning potential, money isn’t everything. These are the strongest communities in terms of employment and you can see that job levels don’t always correspond with income. But such strength can still have long-term benefits. Vallejo-Fairfield, California is enjoying high employment levels and also offers dental assistant a competitive median salary of $36,170 annually. Yuba City, California is next with a median salary off $33,230. Corcoran and Chico, California are in the middle with annual salaries of $30,970 and $27,640.

This chart displays annual mean salaries for Dental Assistants in the U.S. The data was collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics OES - May 2008.

Dental assistants in Provo-Orem, Utah earn the least of those living in the top five metropolitan areas with an annual income of $26,820. But that doesn’t mean that you should forget your life-long dream of living in Provo. Cost of living is a very important factor in deciding what these figures really mean. Areas like Chico and Vallejo can be very expensive to live in and high salary might not go as far as you think.

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Related Charts for Dental Assistant Salaries:

Dental Assisting Pay Scale - Major Metropolitan Areas

Dental Assisting Salaries - Popular States

Dental Assisting Salary Ranges - Popular Industries

The bar graph above shows the Dental Assisting salaries for cities with the highest employment levels. The data is shown below in table format:

City	Annual Mean Wage
Hanford-Corcoran, CA	30970
Chico, CA	27640
Yuba City, CA	33230
Vallejo-Fairfield, CA	36170
Provo-Orem, UT	26820