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Weekly Earnings

Median weekly earnings of the nation’s 120.2 million full-time wage and salary workers were $1,070 in the third quarter of 2022. Women had median weekly earnings of $971, or 83.4% of the $1,164 median for men. By age, usual weekly earnings were highest for men ages 35 to 64: median weekly earnings were $1,299 for men ages 35 to 44, $1,398 for men ages 45 to 54, and $1,346 for men ages 55 to 64. Among women, usual weekly earnings were highest for workers ages 35 to 54: median weekly earnings were $1,086 for women ages 35 to 44 and $1,071 for women ages 45 to 54. Men and women ages 16 to 24 had the lowest median weekly earnings, $713 and $639, respectively. Men’s and women’s earnings were closer among younger workers than older workers; for example, women ages 16 to 24 earned 89.6% as much as men in the same age group, while the women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio was 74.9% for those age 55 and over. Third-quarter median weekly earnings of full-time workers ($1,070) were 6.9% higher than a year earlier, compared with an increase of 8.3% in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.

Payroll Employment

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 261,000 to 153.3 million in October 2022. Monthly job growth has averaged 407,000 thus far in 2022, compared with 562,000 per month in 2021. Education and health services added 79,000 jobs in October 2022. Employment in this industry increased by 927,000 over the year, or 3.9%. Employment in leisure and hospitality continued to trend up in October 2022 (+35,000). Employment in leisure and hospitality rose by 1.2 million since October 2021, but is down by 1.1 million, or 6.5%, from its February 2020 level. Employment is also down in mining and logging (−7.6%), other services (−3.7%), and government (−2.3%) since February 2020. Employment is up 12.6%, or 731,600, in transportation and warehousing over this period.

Change since September 2022

Change since October 2021

Change since February 2020

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Reported Workplace Injuries

There were 2.6 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers in 2021, a 1.8% decrease from 2.7 million cases in 2020. In 2021, the incidence rate of total recordable cases in private industry was 2.7 cases per 100 full-time workers, unchanged from 2020. The decline in the total number of cases was due to a drop in illness cases. Private industry employers reported 365,200 nonfatal illnesses in 2021, a drop of 32.9% from 544,600 cases in 2020. Total reported injury cases increased 6.3% in 2021 to 2.2 million cases.

Nonfarm Payroll

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics