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 report.
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.
“The continued growth in jobs and pay seen 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.
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%.
Looking at specific regions, 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.
As far as wages are concerned, there was 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 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.
Looking at regions, 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.
By Luke McGrath
