U.S. Wage and Job Growth Are Slowing, New Report Warns

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. labor market is showing further signs of a slowdown, according to new data from Glassdoor.

Job openings in the U.S. increased just 1.4% from the same period last year, according to the employment site's June 2019 Job Market Report. 

“The continued growth in jobs and pay seen in Glassdoor's latest Job Market Report is a sign that the good times aren't over yet. But after a decade-long recovery, today's labor market is sluggish,” Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao said in a statement.

The transportation and logistics sector saw by far the biggest growth, increasing 49% from last June and bringing the total number of open jobs over 300,000, according to Glassdoor. Information technology and government followed with 20% and 19% gains, respectively.

Manufacturing jobs are down 13% from the previous year, as President Donald Trump's trade war has dampened employer sentiment and hiring plans in the industry. Consumer electronics fell more than 25%.

Philadelphia and Atlanta saw some of the highest-percentage rises in job openings over the past year, both yielding more than a 5% increase in jobs posted, data showed. Houston, however, posted more than 90,000 fewer jobs, a nearly 8% decrease from last year.

U.S. wages didn't dazzle either, experiencing a modest year-over-year growth of 1.7%, bringing the median pay of jobs posted to $53,411, data showed. Pharmacy technicians' wages increased the most, up 7.7% to a median base pay of $31,726. Insurance agents, machine operators and restaurant cooks also saw pay increases of at least 5%, the report showed.

Maintenance workers took the largest wage cut, down 4.3% to a median base pay of $40,973. Attorneys and business development managers rounded out the bottom three, with decreases of 3.0% and 2.6%, respectively.

Wages grew 3.1% in San Francisco, to a median base pay of $72,467, while Boston impressed across the board, with job openings up 5.8% and pay up 2.7%, both above national averages.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Petri at jpetri4@bloomberg.net

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