Weekly Economic Trends and Indicators
This week we examine recent wage data for the Quad Cities area. In July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, (BLS) released the annual report on occupational employment and wages for May 2022. (This detailed data is always about one year delayed.) The report shows that average wages in the metro area were $26.07. This is up from $24.63 in 2021 (an increase of 5.8%). For comparison, the average wage in the United States in May 2022 was $29.76, which is up 6.2% from $28.01 in 2021.
While wage growth in the local area was slightly lower than the national average, it should be noted that our cost of living is significantly lower than most larger metro areas which tends to keep wages down for most occupations. However, occupations in the highest demand locally tend to pay more nationally competitive wages to attract and retain jobs.
Four occupational categories where the Quad Cities area has a higher concentration than the national average saw large gains in wages: architecture and engineering, construction and extraction, transportation and material moving and production.
The table below shows the wages, growth and wage gap for these occupations. In each of these occupational categories, the local wage gains outpaced the national average which either partially closed the gap between local and national wages or in some cases pushed local wages further above the national average.
Also in each of those cases, the wage gap improved. For architecture and engineering, QC wages were 10% lower than the national average in 2021, and the gap closed to 9% last year. In construction and extraction, QC wages were even with the national average in 2021 and are now 2% higher. In production, the local area went from 1% below to 2% above the national average. Finally, in transportation and material moving, the gap closed from 5% to 4% below the national average.
In a separate report this week, the BLS reported first quarter employment and wages for the 361 largest counties in the U.S. Only Scott County (IA) is on that list from our area. As expected, employment growth was only 0.1% from the first quarter of 2022 to 2023. As we have chronicled in these updates, growth in the local labor market has been slowing down in the first part of this year. However, wage growth in Scott County has been quite robust. The average weekly wage in the county was $1,116, which was up 10.4% from the year before. This was from a survey of the 6100 establishments in the BLS monthly survey. This ranked Scott County in 36th place among the largest 361 counties for wage growth. Together with slowing employment growth, this shows the tightness of the local labor market continuing into the first three months of the year.
Next week: National economic outlook update
