New data out of the payroll company ADP ranked the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area as the fourth-hottest hiring market in the U.S. To determine its rankings, the company analyzed the starting wages, hiring rate and pay growth for 15 million workers.
Looking at starting wages in our region, ADP assessed that new hires can expect to earn $20 per hour. That’s behind only California’s San Jose at $25 and San Francisco at $21 per hour. Boston tied Seattle at $20 per hour. The highest average wage for any new hire in any industry was $65.90 per hour in San Jose for the information industry.
The hiring rate in our region grew by 4% between July 2023 and June 2024. The hottest industries in the Seattle metro area were leisure and hospitality, with a monthly hiring rate of 6.1%. The information industry hired at a 3% rate with a modest $20 per hour starting wage, while the construction industry was offering workers a higher $25 per hour pay rate. Overall Seattle’s construction industry was hiring at a monthly rate of 5%.
Assessing wage growth, the ADP analysis showed that average pay in our area grew by 6.5% annually. This growth occurred despite a broadly slowing labor market nationwide. Other regions also bucked the trend. The top metro area, based on the ADP criteria, was Denver, with a 5.8% annual pay growth and monthly hiring rate of 4.5%, followed by Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, Seattle and Portland, all with a posted annual pay growth of 5.4%.
Alex Cook, a small-business expert at H&R Block’s Block Advisors, expects workers to continue to seek out traditional employment and that small and midsize businesses will potentially face difficulty competing with more established companies for talent. The wages and benefits larger companies can offer may make it increasingly difficult for smaller, younger and more resource-strapped businesses to compete.
This post was based on information found on Puget Sound Business Journal.
