Nominal wage growth has been picking up. The gains, buoyed in part by increases in the minimum wage in several states, have tended to benefit the bottom rung of the wage ladder.
The 3.4 percent year-over-year growth in wages is the highest rate in a decade.
More broadly, optimism continues
“I’ve been in this business over 40 years, and February always presents kind of a pause,” said William H. Stoller, chairman and chief executive of Express Employment Professionals, which is based in Oklahoma City. He compared it to taking a breath during a marathon, before a second wind kicks in. “I don’t see it hitting the wall at all at this point,” he said.
Outside of the government’s report, signs of employer confidence were still evident. Bill Ravenscraft, a senior vice president at the staffing firm Adecco, pointed to the growing willingness to convert temporary workers into full-time staff members. The high rate of conversion shows there is little concern that layoffs will be needed down the road, he said, and signals confidence in the economy that is not limited to one skill set or industry.
With job postings outpacing applicants, Adecco has started to offer daily pay to lure more people into the pool of potential workers. Many job seekers can’t wait two weeks for the paychecks, Mr. Ravenscraft said. Now “if you log eight hours that day, you get paid for it.”
Surveys reflect the optimism. Of the 681 employers surveyed last month by Vistage, an association of small-business owners and executives, nearly 60 percent said they planned to increase their total staff over the next 12 months. That share is down from last year, said Joe Galvin, Vistage’s chief research officer, but is still strong.
As has been the case throughout the recovery, job opportunities can vary widely by region. Hard-pressed rural areas have experienced the slowest growth in employment, yet residents are often unable or unwilling to abandon their homes and move to other areas.
While the job growth reflected in the monthly report is spread relatively evenly across large urban areas, the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project found that “rural counties — the majority of which were already struggling — seem to be increasingly left behind with employment barely growing over the last five years.”
