Wage growth since 2006 for U.S. private industry workers. Via PayScale.

U.S. compensation rose for the seventh-straight quarter as nominal wages grew by another 2.1 percent in Q1 2017.

That’s one finding from PayScale’s latest Index report that tracks changes in wages for full-time, private industry U.S. workers.

Photo via Shutterstock.

“The labor market is in transition from the post-election bump in Q4,” Katie Bardaro, vice president of data analytics and lead economist at PayScale, said in a statement. “The most recent Index shows positive results tempered by uneven growth by industry and geography. While it’s the seventh consecutive quarter of positive growth, the tepid increase lags inflation, keeping real wages 7 percent below those of 2006.”

PayScale found that while nominal wages are up for the past seven quarters, real wages declined slightly — “meaning growth in wages was outpaced by inflation over the last quarter,” it noted.

The Seattle-based compensation data software company also found that growth from Q4 2016 to Q1 2017 slowed by 0.3 percent compared to the spike from Q3 2016 to Q4 2016.

A majority (25) of the 32 metro areas PayScale tracks saw wage growth; San Francisco saw the highest wage growth of any area with a 4 percent year-over-year spike, with Los Angeles, San Jose, Charlotte, and Cincinnati following. Seattle ranked 10th with a 2.5 percent annual increase.

The education and construction industry led the way with a 3.6 and 3.3 percent year-over-year increase in wage growth, respectively. Retail jobs also saw a quarter-over-quarter increase of 2.0 percent.

Wages in the tech industry were down slightly quarter-over-quarter by 0.2 percent, “but it’s a relatively small deviation from almost two years of a consistent upward trend,” PayScale noted.

Read the full report here.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.