The Upjohn Institute New Hires Quality Index fell for its sixth consecutive month, down 0.1 percent to $21.22 between September and October. Hiring volume was steady near its all-time low, off 3.8 percent from last October. Hiring rates are down 4.4 percent over the year and 7.8 percent from just before the pandemic.
In this month’s news release, index creator Brad Hershbein compares hiring trends for different age groups among prime-aged workers: young Millennials (25-34), old Millennials (35-44) and Gen Xers (45-54). Young Millennials have fared best in the NHQI wage index since the summer of 2023, while the older groups experienced larger drops.
Young Millennials have fared the worst of the three groups, however, in hiring rates, which account for population change. Older Millennials saw a similar fall in hiring rates during 2023 that leveled and reversed some during 2024.
Thanks to shifts in the wage index and hiring volume of all three groups in recent years, Gen Xers have seen drastic changes in their share of the total earnings power among all new hires. From 2021, their share fell from around 30 percent to below 28 percent, then rebounded above 30 percent before falling, this year, to just over 28 percent.