PayScale Index Shows Big Data Jobs Are Driving Wage Growth In Tech Hubs
The PayScale Index predicts overall US wage growth in Q3 may dip slightly, but is still anticipated to be up 1.6% from the previous year.
PayScale, Inc. has released the Q2 2016 PayScale Index, which tracks quarterly and annual trends in compensation and also provides a U.S. national wage forecast for the coming quarter. In the second quarter of 2016, U.S. annual wage growth was largely positive with national quarterly wage growth of 0.5% and annual wage growth of 2.5%. Wage growth has been experiencing a slight uptick in recent quarters in the U.S. and growth for data-focused jobs has been particularly strong. The PayScale Index predicts overall US wage growth in Q3 may dip slightly, but is still anticipated to be up 1.6% from the previous year.
"Annual wage growth for IT jobs has actually been slightly below the national average in the first half of 2016," said Katie Bardaro, VP of Data Analytics and Lead Economist at PayScale. "However, as more organizations use increasing amounts of data, data-centric jobs are in high demand and appear to be driving wages up in the technology centers such as Seattle and San Francisco."