The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released data that shows that among counties with at least 75,000 workers in New York State, Oneida County ranks second in terms of wages increases. The report looked at wages changes between the 2nd quarters of 2010 and 2011. In that time the county's average weekly wage increased 4.0%, second only to Rockland County's 4.5% increase.
On the surface this would appear to be great news. However a few other factors need to also be looked at. First off, the report also notes that, among NYS 17 largest counties, Oneida County also had the largest decline in workforce over that same period of time (2nd quarter 2010 to 2nd quarter 2011).
So what does this mean when you have a declining workforce by an increase in average wages? Well one interpretation, according to the Department of Labor, is that it MAY mean that the jobs lost are those in the lower paying positions. The elimination of lower wage positions has the dual impact of lowering the over all number of people working, plus pumping up the average wage of the people who continue to be employed overall. As an example, let's look at manufacturing numbers over the time frame of the report.
Between the second quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of 2011, about 265 manufacturing jobs were lost in Oneida County according to DOL statistics. this is a decline of about 3% in that sector. The average weekly wage for the second quarter in 2011 was actually more than $1,100 higher than the average weekly wage a year prior. This represents an increase of almost $10.5% between the two quarters.
Does this mean that the actual wages increased or is it reflective of just a fewer number of workers who generally make more money being counted as part of the study period?
It appears to be a little of both ! First of all, the total amount of money paid out in wages actually did increase between the second quarter of 2010 and that of 2011. It went from about $95M to almost $102M, an increase of about 7%. So actual wages did increase. At the same time, the average wages showed an increase of more than this 7%, as noted above the average increased by about 10.5%. This would suggest that mathematically the loss of lower wage positions is also coming into play here.
So in the end, while the report from the BLS suggest that we are seeing improvement in local wages, it doesn't necessarily tell the whole story. For that you need to look deeper into the data !
Here's the news release !
Here's the news release !
