Figures released by a state agency last month showed workers in Pacific County brought home heftier paychecks last summer than the year prior, continuing a streak of strong post-pandemic wage growth.

According to data compiled by the Washington State Employment Security Department, the average wage in the third quarter of 2024 — July, August and September — increased by 6.7% from the same period in 2023. Wages increased from an average of $899 per week in the summer of 2023 to $959 last summer.

The wage growth in the county more than doubled the 2.5% increase in inflation that the five Pacific Coast states — Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and Hawaii — experienced in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same three months in 2023, meaning the average wage easily outran inflation over that 12-month period.

ESD’s data is based on lagging quarterly employment and wage data that employers are required to submit. The figures show that nearly $84 million was paid out to Pacific County workers last summer, up from just over $79 million over the same three-month period in 2023.

Workers in basically every major local industry saw improved pay in the third quarter of 2024, including several that saw double-digit year-over-year growth. Wages grew by 11.8% for construction workers in Pacific County, increasing from an average of $862 to $964 per week. Healthcare and social services employees saw their pay increase from $770 to $851 per week, a jump of 10.5%, while wages for those working in financial services and insurance increased by 12.4%, from $1,171 to $1,316 per week.

Wage growth was less robust in the county’s large service sector, with those working in the likes of hotels, motels, restaurants and bars seeing their average wage increase from $535 per week in the summer of 2023 to $549 weekly the following year — up just 2.6%. Pay for local retail employees was up 7.5%, from $665 to $715 per week.

Government workers in the county — nearly 90% of which work for the county, one of the four cities or a local taxing district, with the rest working for the state or federal government — saw their wages increase more mildly as well. The average weekly wage for about 1,800 public sector employees increased 3.4%, from $1,294 to $1,338.

Pay among manufacturing workers jumped by 7.3%, from $935 to $1,003 per week, while it increased by 9.3% for those working in agriculture, forestry and fishing — from $848 to $927 weekly. Among those working in administrative support positions and waste services, wages increased from $807 to $841 per week, an increase of 4.2%.