California workers ended 2024 with the nation’s fifth-largest pay raises, despite sluggish job creation.

My trusty spreadsheet looked at a fourth-quarter tally of workers and wages by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that’s taken from a review of employers’ unemployment insurance filings for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. These stats are considered a more reliable snapshot of employment patterns compared with the monthly surveys released shortly after a month ends.

However, these quarterly stats take time to prepare. Thus, we’re talking about job market conditions at the end of last year as we approach the middle of 2025.

Caveat noted, the quarterly statistics show that California bosses were relatively generous with their workers at year-end, upping average weekly wages by 6

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