Yoh Index a Silver Lining in Labor Market

Yoh, a leading provider of staffing and workforce solutions, regularly produces reports on labor market trends. Despite May 2012’s disappointing jobs report out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Yoh’s quarterly Index of Wages for highly skilled temporary workers has revealed a few bright spots amidst the gloom that may point to a sunnier economy in the future. The new Index of Wages report continues to show stagnant wage growth for the second straight quarter but has shown some sectors outperform the rest of the labor market.

And while wages for highly skilled temp workers declined 1.42 percent in Q1 2012, some sectors, such as the aerospace industry,showed strong demand and wages for skilled temp workers. Average wages in this sector averaged nearly 24 percent above more inclusive labor market wage rates. Temporary clinical and information technology professionals also averaged well above comprehensive rates at 22 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

Wage rates have regularly grown over the past two quarters in technology fields as noted by Lori Schultz, president of Yoh, who stated, “Technology tied to U.S. consumer demand, as well as ongoing moves into mobile and cloud computing, showed themselves to be resilient, generating strong job demand,” she continued. “As more technology infrastructure moves to the cloud, and as corporations overcome their trepidation over mobile computing, we expect this sector to continue to generate demand for highly skilled tech workers and buoy wages.”

The importance of the Yoh Index lies in the fact that highly skilled temp workers are generally considered a crucial leading indicator of economic growth.