Pay rises in 4 of 6 Oregon counties

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Wages shrank in more than 40 percent of the nation’s major counties between 2008 and 2009 — but Multnomah County was not part of that unhappy group.

A report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says that the average worker in Multnomah County earned $868 per week during last year’s second quarter. That was up 0.6 percent from the same period a year earlier.

BLS compared earnings and employment levels in 334 major counties across the country. Average wages increased in 175 of those counties, declined in 140, and remained the same in 15. No figures were available for the other four counties.

Complete employment and earnings data for all counties in the BLS report can be accessed here.

The nation’s sharpest increase was registered in Olmsted County, Minn., where average wages shot up 10.8 percent between the second quarters of 2008 and 2009. Olmsted includes the city of Rochester, Minn.

The worst decline occurred in Weld County, Colo., which is northeast of Denver. Its average wages dropped 9.0 percent in a year.

Six local counties were included in the federal report. Washington County, with an average wage of $941, had a 0.2 percent decline; Clackamas County, with an average wage of $778, had a 0.3 percent decline; Marion County, with an average wage of $696, had a 2.8 percent increase; Lane County, with an average wage of $675, had a 0.9 percent increase; and Jackson County, with an average wage of $659, had a 1.5 percent increase.