Wages for U.S. workers grew by $1.04, or 3.8%, to $24.40 an hour over the last year, according to ADP Research Institute‘s Workforce Vitality Report released Wednesday.
The report said that the growth was driven by strong wage gains in the manufacturing industry, representing 10% of the workforce (3.9% wage growth, $29.55 average hourly wage) and trade, representing 22% of the workforce (4.9%, $25.26/hour). The West (4.2%, $30.50) and large businesses (4.9%, $29.51) also helped, ADP said.
“As employment growth slows and wages accelerate for both job holders and job switchers, all signs point to a scarcity of skilled talent in the labor market,” Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said. “This trend is further evidenced by the significant wage growth we’ve seen for new entrants in most industries, which is great news for college graduates poised to enter the workforce this spring.”
Job switchers in the information industry led the way in both wage level ($44.45) and wage growth (11.3%). Job switchers in professional and business services and construction also saw high wage growth figures of 8.5% and 8.6%, respectively. In the trade industry, job holders saw stronger growth in wages than job switchers, 5.1% to 3.9%.
Workers in the West outpaced other regions with employment and wage growth both at 4.2%. Job switchers also fared well in the West, with a wage growth of 7.8%. The Northeast was slammed the hardest when compared to the rest of the regions with its negative employment growth of 0.3%. The South had the lowest wage growth at 3.6%.
By firm size, workers at large firms saw the highest wage growth (4.9%) with employment growth at 3.2%.
