Wages drop for 5th time in 33 years

Change. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics weekly wages have dropped, the fifth time in a generation.

In a just-released review of employment in the nation's largest 322 counties, BLS found that weekly wages dropped over the year by 1.7 percent to $955 in the fourth quarter of 2011 from a high of $971 in the fourth quarter of 2010.

That means the $50,000-a-year mark, busted in the fourth quarter of 2010, has dropped back to an average yearly salary of $49,660. And the wage depression was widespread: 282 major counties suffered wage declines; just 36 saw increases.

But it must be all those poor, suffering government workers right?

(chart from Michael Mandel)

Oh.