Executive Overview Brochure - Q4 2011

 Yoh Index Finds Disconnect Between Recent Unemployment Statistics and Real-World Demand for Skilled Temporary Workers

Recent reported employment gains should be great news for the American economy. But findings by the Yoh Index, which measures real-wage growth among skilled temporary workers, shows continued stagnation in salary rates among the most dynamic sector of the U.S. employment market. Temporary skilled employees are often considered bellwethers of future economic activity that offer businesses the ability to quickly add or subtract competent employees on an as-needed basis, as demand fluctuates. As the economy strengthens, wages for temporary skilled workers should increase as employers add temporary workers as a way to capitalize on surging economic activity in advance of adding permanent employees and cementing long-term fixed costs. 

No such demand was found in the most recent Yoh Index, which has been tracking wage increases for skilled temporary workers since 2001. In fact, the Yoh Index barely budged for the quarter, ending the year at 114.26 (Figure 1), just a 1.15 percent increase over the same quarter for 2010 (Figure 2).

What’s the disconnect? How can employment be surging according to some sources, while Yoh’s real-world tracking of actual wages remains flat?  

Much of it has to do with employment participation rate, which now stands at 63.7 percent, the lowest since the early 1980s. An artificially low employment participation rate decreases the unemployment rate by reducing the total number of people looking for work. Whatever the cause, the fact remains that there’s still incongruity between what the government is reporting in job growth, and what companies, such as Yoh, are seeing in the real world.

So as this stagnant economic recovery continues, what are the real forces stifling American employment? A recent survey, commissioned by Yoh and conducted by Amplitude Research, found that systemic uncertainty over the economy and structural inefficiencies within the hiring process continue to suppress U.S. employment, and threaten to do so well into the future...Read the entire Q4 Index Report  

Trends in Technology Wages: January 2001 – Present

Yoh began indexing pay rates in the technology sectors in January 2001. The technology wage market experienced an unstable year in 2001 and then fell dramatically after September 11. Wages experienced another up-and-down year in 2002, but were then up slightly in 2004, as compared to 2003. In 2005 and 2006, tech wages consistently outpaced national trends with 2007 wages starting out strong but slowed at the end of the year. 2008 brought on a decline through the first two quarters, and finished flat. The first two quarters of 2009 showed wages holding steady supporting cautious optimism for the economy as a whole.

The Yoh Index of Technology Wages presents a current view of the changes in employer demand and supply of technology workers nationwide. Indexed to January 2001, the Yoh Index of Technology Wages was first introduced in January 2003 and is released quarterly.

The employment markets covered by the Yoh Index of Technology Wages are:

• Aerospace & Defense (Aviation)
• Engineering
• Information Technology
• Life Sciences (Clinical, Health Care, Scientific, Validation)
• Telecommunications

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