RENO, NV -- Latest results show Nevadan’s weekly wages continue to show improvement, indicating the state’s economy is on the mend, said Bill Anderson, chief economist for the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR). “Average weekly wages in Nevada have been trending up since bottoming out in the recession,” Anderson said. “Specifically, during the first half of the year, wages in Nevada averaged $830, a rise of 2.6 percent relative to the first half of 2011 when they came in $809 per week.”

Wages actually fell in both 2009 and 2010, at the height of the recession, before rebounding modestly, he said. Specifically, they have risen from readings a year ago in six of the past eight quarters. Although wages did tick down ever so slightly in this year’s second quarter (-0.2 percent relative to a year ago), a 5.5 percent gain during the first three months of the year helped push wages up.  “Should current trends hold, Nevada is on pace to set an all-time average weekly wage high this year, in nominal terms, surpassing the $829 recorded for all of 2011,” Anderson said.

“However, in “real” terms, after adjusting for inflation, recent wage trends appear to be relatively flat. During the first six months of this year, the Consumer Price Index rose, on average, about 2.4 percent compared to the same period in 2011.” Overall, recent wage trends are consistent with several other barometers of the labor market’s health and suggest that Nevada’s labor market has been on the mend since right around the beginning of 2011.