Blue-collar hiring and pay gains continued to be strong in a cooling job market. According to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wages for the majority of blue-collar occupations continued to rise in the first quarter of 2019, even as employment growth overall cooled.
Seasonally adjusted employment in blue-collar occupations—which consist of construction, extraction, production and transportation occupations—grew by more than 300,000, or 1.8%, from March 2018 to March 2019. Wage gains in blue-collar occupations were even more impressive, rising 4.2% over the course of the first quarter.
The good news for blue-collar workers was tempered slightly by the fact that overall job growth cooled slightly in the first quarter. Employers added just 124,000 jobs in March, falling far short of expectations. That marked the slowest growth since February 2018.
Still, none of the recent job market data suggests that the gains blue-collar workers have seen in recent years are reversing. The gains can be partly attributed to the tight labor market, which has made employers more willing to pay higher wages in order to attract and retain workers. That can be especially beneficial to blue-collar occupations, since demand for these jobs is often much higher than supply.
As the labor market continues to cool, however, workers may want to be on the lookout for signs of potential trouble. The BLS noted that wage growth for the fourth quarter of 2018 had moderated from the third quarter, signaling that employers may be less willing to raise wages like they have in recent years.
