County wages gain ground

COEUR d’ALENE — Personal income in 2013 in the five North Idaho counties rose approximately 1-3 percent compared with the previous year, according to numbers released Monday by the Idaho Department of Labor.

“Most sectors showed increases in employment and increases in average wage,” said Kathryn Tacke, a regional economist based in Lewiston for the department.

Personal income — the total of wages, business profits, investment earnings and transfer payments like Social Security and pensions — rose in all but Lewis County in Idaho in 2013.

Idaho’s 2013 average wage was up 2.4 percent from 2012 to $37,800. The national average is just more than $50,000.

Idaho’s highest average wage in 2013 was in Butte County at nearly $85,500. The Idaho National Laboratory is in Butte County.

The average wage in Shoshone County climbed 4.6 percent to $41,110. Total income in the county reached $468.2 million — a 1.5 percent increase.

Tacke said payrolls for business services in Shoshone, including for mining Superfund cleanup projects, added $10.2 million in payroll.

“Payrolls for the mining sector grew 10 percent, adding $3.1 million to total payroll in the county,” Tacke said.

The number of mining jobs increased to 844 from 784, while the average pay in the sector jumped 9.4 percent to $79,831, she said.

Total income in Kootenai County was $5.26 billion, meaning an increase of 3 percent compared with 2012.

Health care and social assistance saw a $23.5 million increase in payrolls, amounting to a 12.7 percent increase, Tacke said.

“The next largest increase came from agriculture, forestry and logging,” she said. “Arts, entertainment and recreation added $9.3 million.”

The average wage in Kootenai County was $34,834, meaning a 3 percent gain from the year earlier.

In Bonner County, total income was $1.42 billion, a 3-percent increase, and the average wage was $33,602, amounting to a 3.8 percent increase from 2012.

Also in Bonner County, manufacturing added $5.6 million to payrolls, providing a strong 7.9 percent gain. Health care and social assistance added the next most to payrolls, adding nearly $3.8 million.

Total income in Benewah County was $319.6 million, a 0.9 percent increase from 2012. The average wage was $36,380, which amounted to a 5 percent increase from 2012.

In Benewah, the total manufacturing payroll jumped 7 percent, adding $1.67 million. That number made up approximately half of the increase in payrolls for all sectors.

Tacke pointed out that the average manufacturing wage rose 5.3 percent to $49,926 while the number of jobs in manufacturing in Benewah County increased 1.6 percent.

“The next largest gains were from logging and forestry jobs and retail jobs,” she said. “Government was the only sector to see significant decline — (by) 0.6 percent.”

In Boundary County the numbers were $322 million in total income, which was a 3.2 percent gain. The average wage was $33,863, for a 3.1 percent increase.

Agriculture and forestry — including logging — saw an increase in payrolls in Boundary County of 18.7 percent, or about $1.6 million.

Manufacturing, especially wood products, was the source of the next largest increase, at $1.26 million, as jobs shot up 9 percent.