The U.S. annual median base pay rose 1.1 percent year over yearin December, to $51,210, a slight uptick from the revised 1 percentgrowth in November, according to the GlassdoorLocal Pay Reports. Pay growth peaked in January 2017 at arevised 3.5 percent.

Glassdoor’s figures are based on salary estimates for nearly 85 jobsacross 10 major metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco,Seattle and Washington, D.C.

The recent stagnation in wage growth is likely due to thechanging composition of the U.S. workforce,says Glassdoor’s chief s economist Andrew Chamberlain.

“As the economy improved, many sidelined workers rejoined thelabor market at below-average wages to get their foot in the doorwith employers,” Chamberlain says. “This impacted overall U.S. payand is likely the reason for the dip and slower recovery.”

A particular bright spot: the health care sector, whichcontinues to post pay increases for many positions. Medicaltechnologist saw the biggest median base pay increase overall, up6.2 percent to $55,670, while emergency medical technician also sawbig gains (up 3.8 percent to $35,259). Other health care positions,including certified nursing assistant (up 2.1 percent to $28,719);licensed practical nurse (up 2 percent to $41,676); pharmacist(up 2 percent to $128,215); and pharmacy technician (up 2 percentto $30,329), all bucked the U.S. trend with pay growth at 2 percentor above.

“While many positions are seeing stark declines in wages, healthcare jobs continue to record positive pay growth,” Chamberlainsays. “These highly specialized roles remain in demand as ourpopulation ages, which means workers in a variety of health carefields will have the upper hand in wage discussions.”

E-commerce positions saw gains at three times the nationalaverage, including warehouse associates (up 4.1 percent to$42,361), truck drivers (up 3.4 percent to $53,043), and deliverydriver (up 3.3 percent to $38,142). Brick-and-mortar positions alsosaw positive gains throughout December, including cashiers (up 3.6percent to $27,692) and buyers (up 2.2 percent to $56,774).

Technology industry wages are slowing and YOY pay growth is 0.5percent, down from 3 percent in December 2016. Some positions areseeing gains, like technical support (up 3.5 percent to $45,526)and web developer (up 2.4 percent to $64,050), but others like javadeveloper (down 2.5 percent to $73,029) are seeing steep declines.The demand for data scientist roles is also leveling off: Medianbase pay for data scientists ($95,713) and data analysts ($58,855)were up 1.1 percent in December, on par with the overall U.S.average.

Automation and artificial intelligence is beginning to impacttraditional roles and wages are starting to decline among positionsthat are being replaced by these new technologies, including loanofficer (down 6.1 percent to $42,983), machine operator (down 1.9percent to $38,460) and office manager (down 1.1 percent to$44,958).

Other jobs experiencing the biggest declines in year-over-yearpay growth in December, bartender (down 6.6 percent to $30,604),civil engineer (down 1.5 percent to $66,008) and maintenance worker(down 1.4 percent to $39,451) topped the list.
Among the 10 metros tracked, wage growth was fastest in SanFrancisco (up 2.0 percent to $68,078), and Boston (up 1.8 percentto $58,544). Houston experienced the weakest pay growth again inDecember, and fell year-over-year (down 0.3 percent to$54,292).

A separate report, the Paychex | IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch, closedthe year with a decline in small business job growth and wages upover the previous year. The Small Business Jobs Index stands at99.70 in December, down 0.16 percent for the month and 0.78 percentfor the year. Hourly earnings in December gained 2.76 percentyear-over-year, to $26.14, and averaged a growth rate of 2.85percent for 2017, up from the 2016 average of 2.75 percent.

“While small business jobs growth slowed this year, it’simportant to recall that small businesses led the hiring surgecoming out of the recession and maintained high levels of growthfor quite some time," says Martin Mucci, Paychex president and CEO.“It will be interesting to see the impact tax reform makes on joband wage growth in the months ahead.”

The South is the only region with an index above 100, logging inat 100.37 on the latest monthly Regional Job Index, and rankingfirst every month in 2017. All four regions declined from lastmonth and last year. At the division level, only the West SouthCentral, with the oil recovery, and New England improved the paceof small business job growth year-over-year.

At 3.51 percent, the West continues to be the strongest regionfor hourly earnings growth on the latest Regional Wage Report,nearly a full percentage point ahead of the second-ranked South(2.64 percent). The Midwest ranks last in both earnings and hoursworked growth, while the West leads both categories.

For the latest Industry Jobs Index, Leisure and Hospitality hasdropped 2.73 percent since March, from 101.79 to 99.01 -- itseighth decrease in the last nine months. While all other industriesslowed or remained unchanged from last year, Manufacturing grew1.61 percent and climbed a spot in the rankings for the third monthin a row.

In the latest Industry Wage Report, growth in weekly earningspicked up in Construction during 2017, climbing from 2.94 percentlast December to 3.58 percent this December. Weekly earnings slowedmarkedly to end the year in Manufacturing and Professional andBusiness Services.