Today
payroll-processing firm ADP released its Workforce
Vitality Index (WVI), which reflects an upward trend in
wage growth for the third quarter of 2015. The index climbed to 108.9 during the period, up from 108.0 in the previous quarter and 105.8 in the first quarter. It also represents an impressive 5.1 percent increase over the third quarter of 2014.
The WVI, developed by the ADP Research Institute with partner Moody’s Analytics, offers quarterly data on U.S. private-sector workforce dynamics and trends and measures industries by key labor-market indicators, such as employment growth, job turnover, wage gains, and hours worked. Though the report focuses on the third quarter of 2015, it uses historical data from the third quarter of 2013 to contextualize its conclusions. The starting value is set at 100, so numbers above that figure are positive, indicating growth, and those below are negative, indicating a contraction. It is not seasonally adjusted.
The construction industry thrived for the second straight month, receiving the highest point value of the eight sectors tracked in the WVI. At 116.4, the construction industry came in up about one point from the previous quarter and posted a 9-percent gain over the third quarter of 2014.
The manufacturing industry received a score of 108.8, a slight decrease from the second quarter’s value of 109.4, and yet a 6.5 percent increase over the same period a year ago.
Professional and business services, a category that includes architecture and engineering firms, saw a marginal gain from 105.1 in the second quarter to 105.7 in the third quarter, and a 4.1 percent increase from the same period a year ago.
Check out the latest monthly employment figures from ADP here.
