The inaugural April 2019 Job Market Report reveals that both job openings and pay growth remain slow but steady. Right now, there are nearly 5.6 million open online jobs in the U.S., down just 0.4 percent from one year ago (April 2018), while pay is up 1.4 percent year-over-year, with the average U.S. full-time worker now earning a median base pay of $52,807.
In terms of job growth, this month’s 5.6 million job openings figure is down from an all-time high of 5.8 million open online jobs from October 2018 and represents the continuation of steady, but slow, job growth thus far in 2019. Among the ten metros tracked in the Job Market Report, growth among job openings remains mixed.
Atlanta saw the biggest job growth (120,531 job openings, up 7.9 percent year-over-year growth) while wages grew 2.2 percent ($54,829median base pay).
Meanwhile, Houston saw the biggest decline in job growth (91,853 job openings, down 5.1 percent year-over-year) while wages declined 0.6 percent year-over-year ($55,522 median base pay), continuing a deceleration the southern metro has seen in both job and pay growth so far in 2019.
“What this month’s Glassdoor Job Market Report shows is yet another clear sign pointing towards a slowdown in the labor market. This isn’t a cause for alarm, but it is a splash of cold water on the labor market compared to the blazing job growth we saw through most of 2018,” said Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor senior economist. “This slowdown in job growth is likely due to the missing burst of hiring in the first quarter of 2019. The first quarter is when we traditionally see a surge in hiring to kick off the new year, but this year, that didn’t happen. That is one reason why we’re seeing more stunted hiring now.”
While 2018 was a strong year for the economy, with companies benefiting from tax breaks that propelled hiring forward, some industries are seeing job growth and hiring continue, while for other industries the trend has fizzled.
Consumer electronics (11,083 job openings, up 60.2 percent year-over-year) and insurance (82,914 job openings, up 29.9 percent) are among the industries with some of the fastest annual growth in open jobs. Conversely, the technology industry saw the slowest growth, down 28.5 percent year-over-year to 69,129 U.S. job openings this month, likely in part a result of the onslaught of data privacy issues and other controversies that plagued the tech industry in late 2018.
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