Wages increased in the Inland Empire late in 2018, but the pace of growth and the size of the weekly paycheck still lag much of California, a federal report released Wednesday found.

The average weekly wage for a San Bernardino County worker in the fourth quarter last year was $934, a 3% increase from the same three months in 2017, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Workers in Riverside County saw a slim 1.1% year-over-year gain to $883 weekly. Weekly pay in the coastal counties also was up to $1,380 in Los Angeles County (a 2.1% gain) and $1,251 for Orange County workers (up 0.6%).

Weekly pay for Inland workers is roughly on par with those in Central Valley locations, such as Stanislaus ($943), Kern ($923) and Fresno ($904) counties. Statewide, wages increased 3.3% in the quarter, and 3.2% nationally, the BLS reports. The average weekly paycheck in California was $1,392.

Redlands-based economist John Husing said the report reflects the makeup of the Inland Empire workforce, which remains primarily blue-collar. Husing said that between 2011 and 2019, the period of recovery from the recession and the current economic growth spurt, 39% of all new jobs were in blue-collar sectors.

Statewide, only 21% of the jobs created during those eight years fell into that category. “Let’s face it, that’s what we have in jobs here,” Husing said.

The construction industry, one of the best-paying blue-collar sectors, had about 130,000 Inland workers in 2006, during the housing boom. That has yet to bounce back, and the sector now employs about 106,000, according to a recent state report.

Many displaced construction workers ended up in warehouses, which generally pay less. Husing said some of them have benefited from what he called “the Amazon effect,” referring to the online retailer’s $15 per hour starting wage. Amazon now employs more than 20,000 in the region and is its biggest private-sector employer.

“There are some business owners in the logistics sector that have told me that they’ve had to raise pay scales just to keep their people,” he said.

Husing added the growth in health care jobs — reportedly up 7% in June from 12 months earlier — could likely move the wage needle up.

Robert Kleinhenz, economist with the Center for Economic Forecasting and Development at UC Riverside, said the slow growth in Riverside County in the fourth quarter might be a correction because the fourth quarter of 2017 was unusually high.

UC Riverside has been focusing on developing the area’s technology sector, but Kleinhenz said it could be a while before that is reflected in wage growth.

“The segment of the overall economy that I could put in the technology bucket is relatively small,” Kleinhenz said. “A big part of what we have now is tech startups, and it’s too early for that to show up on the radar.”

The California county with the biggest paychecks was San Francisco, at an average of $2,452 a week, a 10.4% gain.