Indeed Wage Tracker: March Data Make Downward Trend of Wage Growth Clearer Yet

9 April 2024

By Isabel Teles – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – Wage growth in jobs advertised online in euro area countries fell in March, making the deceleration trend clearer, according to new data released by Indeed.

Year-over-year, wage growth measured by Indeed decreased from 3.68% in February to 3.33% in March. The three-month moving average fell from 3.90% to 3.67%.

The new data reinforce the downward trend for 2024 anticipated by Indeed expert Pawel Adrjan in an interview with Econostream in February.

Adrjan explained at the time that despite a slight uptick due to some regional volatility in January's data, the deceleration was apparent, as wage growth was slowing down in most occupational categories, ‘suggesting it is not a niche phenomenon, and there is a broad decline.’

Wage declaration has been one of the key elements referenced by the ECB to increase its confidence about sustainably reaching the 2% inflation target, and Indeed Wage Tracker has been cited as an important indicator of labour market tightening and wage bargaining.

Since the last monetary policy decision, for instance, Chief Economist Philip Lane mentioned positive developments in the Indeed Wage tracker on at least two occasions.

‘Compared to one year ago, there are indicators that the labour market is slowing down’, Lane said during an event in France. ‘If you track the vacancies posted on Indeed, compared to where they were a year ago, they are a lot lower.’

With the Governing Council meeting in two days, the new Indeed data could serve as an important argument for starting policy easing.