Twin Cities pay: Big hit in recession, big bounceback in recovery?

Not immediately sure what to make of this new data from the feds on Twin Cities pay and benefits during the Great Recession.

But it looks like our region took a bigger-than-the-nation hit in wages and total compensation during the Great Recession but is swinging back now in the "recovery," faster than other major cities.

Couple of intriguing Bureau of Labor Statistics charts. These are twelve-month percent changes in the BLS Employment Cost Index -- private industry workers, not seasonally adjusted.

Twin Cities "wages and salaries, the largest component of total compensation costs, advanced at a 3.2-percent pace for the 12-month period ended December 2010," BLS wrote. "Nationwide, total compensation costs rose 2.1 percent and wages and salaries, 1.8 percent over the same period."

The data has me thinking about comparing wage increases in Minnesota. The state Department of Employment and Economic Development keeps good data on this.

I'm going to look at some statewide wage data during the recession, maybe compare private sector pay vs public sector pay over the past three years.

Overall, the BLS data is positive and reinforces the notion that for people who have jobs in the Twin Cities, there's reason for optimism.

Take a look at the report and the data and drop us a line if anything intrigues you.

Here's one final chart comparing to the Twin Cities to other cities.

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