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Workers in Southern California’s lesser-compensated counties are getting the bigger pay hikes. My trusty spreadsheet reviewed quarterly wage stats from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics for the second quarter, focusing on details for 29 California counties and seven from Southern California. The 9.9 million local workers collectively saw annualized earnings rise 3.6% in 12 months to an average $75,600 annual wage. By the way, Southern California’s workforce is roughly the size of all the employees in New York state or the Netherlands. Details Let’s start with paying the Inland Empire and its big logistics industries. Across San Bernardino County, annual wages rose 5.3% in a year to $62,504 for 837,800 workers. That’s the region’s biggest raise – but its only eighth-best out of the among 29 California counties tracked by the report. Meanwhile, neighboring Riverside County had 4.3% increases (No. 14 statewide) to $59,384 for 836,100 workers. And in Santa Barbara County, an economy heavy with hospitality jobs, wages were up 4.7% (No. 9 statewide) to $67,496 for 222,400 workers. Now, let’s contrast those raises better-paid parts of Southern California. These counties have higher concentrations of workers at technology and business-services companies. Orange County’s one-year raises averaged 4.2% (No. 15 statewide) to $78,312 for 1.65 million workers. Los Angeles County pay was up 4.1% increase (No. 16) to $79,768 for 4.5 million workers. In Ventura County, there was a 3.2% increase (No. 19) to $68,068 for 339,100 workers. And then contemplate San Diego County, with the region’s best pay. These 1.54 million workers got the smallest raises statewide – only a 0.1% increase to $79,352. Bottom line Stronger raises at the bottom of the pay spectrum earlier in 2024 likely reflect hikes in various minimum wages and continued staffing challenges for bosses in lower-paying industries. Southern California pay hikes were significantly below what bosses handed out in nine Bay Area counties, which amounted to 6.1% increases to $138,900-a-year wage for 4 million workers. By the way, the state’s biggest raises were in Santa Clara County – a 10% jump to $188,864 for its 1.1 million workers. Southern California also trailed 13 other California counties in the study, where collectively pay was up 4% in a year to $64,300 for 3.1 million workers. Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com Some of my popular tales of 2024 ...

You couldn’t fault the effort on either side, but the skill levels seemed to be lacking. Henshaw threw a forward pass with the try-line beckoning even if the pass had gone two yards backward. Billy Burns kicked the ball dead and Rory Scannell missed a penalty to touch. The passing and handling lacked accuracy resulting in quite a few knock-ons and turnovers. Sam Prendergast managed to avoid the above malaise – his passing was always accurate and his kicking precise. He also took his try remarkably well, although you have to wonder at the Munster midfield defence with Leinster a man down due to a Tommy O’Brien yellow card for repeated offenses in defence. What does Rory Scannell add to this Munster team? The penalty count was Munster 3 Leinster 11 at an early stage of the second half, so Leinster have a few work-ons as well. I always favoured Crowley as Sexton’s natural successor – Ross Byrne simply doesn’t represent enough of a running threat – which puts his backline under additional pressure. But unfortunately, both Crowley and Byrne’s form have taken a backward step as Prendergast’s star has risen, and right now he is the only outstanding player we have at 10. Sadly, Crowley was rested for this match which robbed the spectators of an interesting head to head comparison. But Munster were never going to take a 0-14 half-time score line lying down, with Tom Ahern using every inch of his 6’ 10” frame to make the line wide off a short tapped penalty and make it 7-14. The Leinster scrum really starting motoring and gave the referee no choice but to award penalties from which Prendergast extracted the maxim yardage. It didn’t take Van Der Flier long to bring the score-line back to a 14 point margin – 7-21. Henshaw then squandered a penalty advantage with a croc roll which meant the penalty was reversed. Seriously lads? Experienced test players conceding needless penalties? But Munster’s passing and handling did not improve, and they struggled to put sustained attacks together. As if to confirm my earlier prognosis, Ross Byrne then missed a penalty to touch. Prendergast’s masterclass seems to have spooked him into trying too hard and taking on too much. Not to matter, the Leinster pack took charge not troubling their backline with too much ball. Their modh díreach leading to a try for Caelan Doris. Despite not being a huge man, his ability to break through the toughest of defences never ceases to amaze me. The game ended with Leinster in almost total control, the Munster bench no match for Leinster’s. Tadgh Beirne was his usual industrious self, but it is difficult to pick out other outstanding Munster performers. For Leinster Osborne got involved an awful lot to mixed effect but other than Prendergast the plaudits have to go to the Leinster pack who had the edge for most of the match.NEW YORK (AP) — Technology stocks pulled Wall Street to another record amid a mixed Monday of trading. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% from its all-time high set on Friday to post a record for the 54th time this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 128 points, or 0.3%, while the Nasdaq composite gained 1%. Super Micro Computer, a stock that’s been on an AI-driven roller coaster, soared 28.7% to lead the market. Following allegations of misconduct and the resignation of its public auditor , the maker of servers used in artificial-intelligence technology said an investigation found no evidence of misconduct by its management or by the company’s board. It also said that it doesn’t expect to restate its past financials and that it will find a new chief financial officer, appoint a general counsel and make other moves to strengthen its governance. Big Tech stocks also helped prop up the market. Gains of 1.8% for Microsoft and 3.2% for Meta Platforms were the two strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500. Intel was another propellant during the morning, but it lost an early gain to fall 0.5% after the chip company said CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired and stepped down from the board. Intel is looking for Gelsinger’s replacement, and its chair said it’s “committed to restoring investor confidence.” Intel recently lost its spot in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to Nvidia, which has skyrocketed in Wall Street’s frenzy around AI. Stellantis, meanwhile, skidded following the announcement of its CEO’s departure . Carlos Tavares steps down after nearly four years in the top spot of the automaker, which owns car brands like Jeep, Citroën and Ram, amid an ongoing struggle with slumping sales and an inventory backlog at dealerships. The world’s fourth-largest automaker’s stock fell 6.3% in Milan. The majority of stocks in the S&P 500 likewise fell, including California utility PG&E. It dropped 5% after saying it would sell $2.4 billion of stock and preferred shares to raise cash. Retailers were mixed amid what’s expected to be the best Cyber Monday on record and coming off Black Friday . Target, which recently gave a forecast for the holiday season that left investors discouraged , fell 1.2%. Walmart , which gave a more optimistic forecast, rose 0.2%. Amazon, which looks to benefit from online sales from Cyber Monday, climbed 1.4%. All told, the S&P 500 added 14.77 points to 6,047.15. The Dow fell 128.65 to 44,782.00, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 185.78 to 19,403.95. The stock market largely took Donald Trump’s latest threat on tariffs in stride. The president-elect on Saturday threatened 100% tariffs against a group of developing economies if they act to undermine the U.S. dollar. Trump said he wants the group, headlined by Brazil, Russia, India and China, to promise it won’t create a new currency or otherwise try to undercut the U.S. dollar. The dollar has long been the currency of choice for global trade. Speculation has also been around a long time that other currencies could knock it off its mantle, but no contender has come close. The U.S. dollar’s value rose Monday against several other currencies, but one of its strongest moves likely had less to do with the tariff threats. The euro fell amid a political battle in Paris over the French government’s budget . The euro sank 0.7% against the U.S. dollar and broke below $1.05. In the bond market, Treasury yields gave up early gains to hold relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed above 4.23% during the morning before falling back to 4.19%. That was just above its level of 4.18% late Friday. A report in the morning showed the U.S. manufacturing sector contracted again last month, but not by as much as economists expected. This upcoming week will bring several big updates on the job market, including the October job openings report, weekly unemployment benefits data and the all-important November jobs report. They could steer the next moves for Federal Reserve, which recently began pulling interest rates lower to give support to the economy. Economists expect Friday’s headliner report to show U.S. employers accelerated their hiring in November, coming off October’s lackluster growth that was hampered by damaging hurricanes and strikes. “We now find ourselves in the middle of this Goldilocks zone, where economic health supports earnings growth while remaining weak enough to justify potential Fed rate cuts,” according to Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. In financial markets abroad, Chinese stocks led gains worldwide as monthly surveys showed improving conditions for manufacturing, partly driven by a surge in orders ahead of Trump’s inauguration next month. Both official and private sector surveys of factory managers showed strong new orders and export orders, possibly partly linked to efforts by importers in the U.S. to beat potential tariff hikes by Trump once he takes office. Indexes rose 0.7% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Shanghai. AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.