Want some good news for Christmas?

The Idaho Department of Labor announced Tuesday that the county’s average wage shot up a whopping 8 percent from the second quarter of 2015 to the same period this year.

To put that number in perspective, the national increase for the quarter was a mere 2.1 percent.

The entire state of Idaho saw a jump of 4.2 percent, the fourth-highest increase among all states and the District of Columbia.

And there’s more: Sam Wolkenhauer, the department’s regional economist, suggested the big second-quarter increase doesn’t appear to be a one-time thing.

“Preliminary numbers for the third quarter indicate that wages will continue to go up, across Idaho and likewise in Kootenai County,” Wolkenhauer said.

“We’ve been waiting for this. Unemployment rates are so low here (3.7 percent statewide) that there had to be upward pressure on wages. Employers are adjusting to competition for jobs.”

The average wage in Kootenai County went up a healthy $55 per week in that year-on-year comparison, from $696 per week to $751.

The most dramatic wage increase here came in the specialized manufacturing sector, which jumped 11.8 percent — to $818 per week average.

“That would be in areas like metal manufacturing, aerospace, electronic components and jobs related to those industries,” Wolkenhauer said. “Those are areas where workers can leave for other companies, and with unemployment so low, people are difficult to replace. It’s hard to acquire talent.”

Wolkenhauer also noted there were significant raises in Kootenai County’s health care industry.

The entire state of Idaho was beginning to look healthy, as well, according to this latest report.

Wolkenhauer pointed out the statewide wage increases occurred, in part, because Idaho had lagged behind the rest of the country in science and technology jobs, and now is finally making up ground in that area.

Not only did Idaho’s average wages double the national average for the second quarter of this year over 2015, but that increase came as the state’s population rose 1.8 percent — the third-highest number in the country over the same period, and Idaho’s largest jump since 2008 (1.9 percent), just before the recession. More good news: 21,575 jobs, or slightly more than 5 percent across the entire state economy, were added during this same period.

Continuing to rebound from that recession, Idaho’s retail sector wages were up 10 percent in the period from the second quarter of 2015 to the same quarter in 2016.

“That rise mirrors national numbers,” Wolkenhauer said. “People finally have more money to spend across the country.

“But it’s worth noting that wages in Idaho’s other sectors primarily were going up. There aren’t a lot of new businesses, so you can conclude the higher numbers reflect raises in several industries, which is really a good sign.”

Only the Boise area (Ada and Canyon counties) had a higher average wage increase (8.6 percent) than Kootenai County.

The only downer in Tuesday’s report concerned Idaho’s overall wage structure nationally.

Despite that 4.2 percent average increase in the second quarter of this year, Idaho remains 48th of the 51 entities measured.

The state did jump one spot from 49th, however.

“There was really only one way to go,” Wolkenhauer said, “but at least we’re moving in the right direction, and our improvement is becoming more substantial.”