Recent data shows that wage growth in the United States has cooled off from the rapid increases seen during the pandemic era. However, certain industries continue to experience wage growth, with a focus on sectors such as law, dentistry, and child care.
According to a recent analysis report released last week on the American job recruitment website Indeed, the company’s wage tracker, the “Indeed Wage Tracker,” measures the average salaries advertised in their online job listings. The results showed that in March, the annual wage growth rate in the U.S. slowed to 3.1%, on par with the average level in 2019 before the pandemic outbreak, and significantly lower than the recent peak of 9.3% in January 2022. Nearly all analyzed industries have experienced a deceleration in wage growth compared to a year ago.
Despite the overall decline from last year, in almost half (47%) of the industries analyzed, the reported wage growth rates remain higher than those in 2019, although the specific pace of wage growth varies across industries.
The analysis indicates that employees in professions such as law, dentistry, child care, janitorial and hygiene services, and medical information have seen relatively significant annual pay increases.
The legal industry, comprising lawyers, compliance officers, and legal assistants, saw the highest year-on-year wage growth in March at 5.7%, only slightly down by 0.1 percentage points from six months prior. Dentistry followed with a 4.8% year-on-year growth in March, the second highest, with a decrease of 0.9 percentage points over the past six months.
Wage growth in the food preparation and service industry peaked at 15.4% in January 2022 following the pandemic, making it the fastest-growing sector in terms of wages among those analyzed. However, by March this year, the year-on-year wage growth rate in this industry had slowed to just 2.4%, a decrease of 13 percentage points from its peak.
In recent years, other industries that have seen a notable decline in wage growth rates include retail (down from 11.7% in February 2022 to the current 2.3%) and driving (from 11.4% in December 2021 to the current 2.7%). These figures underscore the uneven nature of the slowdown in wage growth, with some industries maintaining growth with minimal slowdown, while others experience more significant deceleration.
One industry that continues to maintain strong and steady wage growth is child care. Despite the expiration of federal emergency funding provided during the pandemic, this industry remains one of the fastest-growing in terms of wages. Among the industries analyzed, child care ranks third in terms of year-on-year wage growth, reaching 4.8% in March. Additionally, within the industries studied, the child care sector once reached the second-highest peak in annual wage growth, hitting 14% in December 2021.
These trends highlight the varied landscape of wage growth in the U.S. labor market, with some sectors continuing to flourish while others experience more pronounced deceleration.
责任编辑 (Edited by): 林妍