The Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma area ties the Houston metropolitan region for the best wage growth in the fourth quarter of 2012, reports Seattle Business Mag. Based on the PayScale Index, overall Q4 2012 wage growth for Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Everett, and surrounding cities increased by 4.8 percent.

Here are key highlights on the national labor situation:

• oMedia and publishing jobs posted the largest annual growth in wages at 4.6 percent, surpassing IT's wage increase of 4.4 percent.
• oAnnual wage growth for construction jobs came in third place at 4.2 percent.
• oWages for Food Service workers increased above the 2008 peak levels, and wage growth for Food Service and Restaurant Jobs was 3.3 percent.

The PayScale Index tracks quarterly changes in total cash compensation for full-time, private industry employees in the United States. For more stats on Seattle or other metro areas, check out PayScale's metro rankings.