Paychex and IHS Markit shared the latest jobs and wage data as part of the release of its monthly Small Business Employment Watch, and findings show that the leisure and hospitality sectors rank first for the first time since 2012. Leisure and hospitality jobs were up 3.86 percent during the past quarter.
Nationally, the Small Business Jobs Index gained .15 percent in September and has increased 5.84 percent during the past 12 months, a record high.
"While the growth rate of the national jobs index has slowed over the past two months, the index is now close to 100, its highest level since mid-2017," said James Diffley, chief regional economist at IHS Markit.
The leisure and hospitality sectors continue to outperform all other sectors in earnings growth at 8.14 percent.
"With businesses continuing to recover from the impacts of the pandemic and the competitive employment landscape, we're beginning to see wage pressures in certain industries," said Martin Mucci, Paychex president and CEO. "The leisure and hospitality sector, with its many job openings across the country, is seeing the highest hourly earnings growth across all industries in September."
While wage growth is increasing, all sectors show negative weekly hours worked growth. Overall, hourly earnings growth increased 3.68 percent. Hourly earnings have also improved by $1.05 from a year ago, averaging $29.68 in September. However, because of the reduced weekly hours worked, weekly earnings growth (2.75 percent) is nearly one percent lower than hourly earnings growth (3.68 percent).
This new report should be welcome news to the industry since, in February, the index showed leisure and hospitality jobs were continuing to lag behind other sectors. The new data shows a continued turnaround in the industry and for small businesses as a whole. Whereas early in the year growth was stagnant, sectors are now starting to show growth.
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