The biggest private employment increase in 17 years was driven by gains among above-average paying jobs, dispelling the popular notion that the U.S. is turning into a nation of fast-food workers.
Industries that pay employees more than the average for all workers accounted for 66 percent of total jobs created in 2014, based on data compiled by Bloomberg from Labor Department records. Business services — staffing agencies, accountants, consultants and computer-system designers — and goods producers, including construction firms and manufacturers, were among those hiring the most.
The pickup indicates the high-flying jobs that were hit hardest during the worst recession in the post-World War II era are making a comeback as the economic expansion gathers momentum. An unexpected slump in wage growth last month had raised some concern that increases in employment were skewed toward lower-paying occupations.
“The reality is really quite different,” said Eric Green, head of rates and economic research at TD Securities USA LLC in New York. “The destruction of these high-paying jobs was much more pronounced in the downturn, but the acceleration off the bottom has been much more pronounced also.”
Employers excluding government agencies paid workers $24.57 per hour on average in December compared with $24.62 the previous month, according to figures from the Labor Department. That depressed the advance over the past year to 1.7 percent, the smallest since late 2012, from 1.9 percent in November.
Biggest Share
Business services, which pay $29.27 an hour on average, accounted for almost 26 percent of the 2.86 million increase in non-government jobs, the most since 1997, according to figures from the Labor Department. Goods producers, paying $25.81, accounted for 18 percent of the new jobs, and education and health-care firms, where workers earn $24.89, contributed 17 percent.
High-paying jobs now make up the same share of total employment as in 2007, before the recession began, according to Green’s calculations.
The idea that low-paying jobs make up the bulk of recent job gains “has a certain amount of appeal because it may explain why earnings are so weak,” Green said. “But the mix is still quite positive.”
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