Fairfield County was among four Connecticut counties to record a decline in wages last year, according to the New England Information Office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
From December 2015 to December 2016, the average weekly wage in Fairfield fell 3.8 percent to $1,676 ”“ still good enough to make it the county with the nation”™s eighth-highest average weekly wage. Hartford County was down 3.2 percent to $1,264, while New Haven County fell 2.8 percent to $1,094. New London County decreased by 3.3 percent to $1,023.
The national average weekly wage decrease for the period was 1.5 percent, to $1,067, according to the BLS.
Over the same period, Fairfield recorded an over-the-year employment decrease of 0.9 percent to 426,800, while New Haven was up 0.4 percent to 368,500; Hartford increased by 0.3 percent to 512,300; and New London grew by 0.8 percent to 123,300. The four counties accounted for 84.9 percent of the state’s total employment in Dec. 2016.
Nationally, employment increased 1.2 percent from December 2015 to December 2016.
