Wages in the US are falling at a ‘striking’ pace, Indeed says

U.S. wage growth has slowed sharply over the past year and is getting closer to returning to its pre-pandemic level, according to new data from career site Indeed.

The wage tracker – based on salaries for job advertisements listed on Indeed – showed that salaries were up 3.3% in February compared with the same time one year ago. That is a marked drop from January 2022, when wages were up about 9.3%, suggesting that employers are facing less competition for new hires.

“The pace of deceleration is striking,” wrote Indeed labor economist Nick Bunker. “Posted wage growth has fallen by almost 3 percentage points over the past year.”

While the deceleration is broad-based, it is most pronounced in low-wage sectors. Posted pay for that group tumbled to 3.4% in February from 12.5% at the start of 2022.

“Given the huge run-up in posted wages for those sectors, wage growth is still above its pre-pandemic pace,” Bunker said. “How long this will last is uncertain.”

By comparison, wage growth for high-wage employees dropped from a high of 8.2% to 2.6% in February. For middle-wage workers, year-over-year growth has fallen to 3.9% from a peak of 8.5%.

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