Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features NCCI’s release of its Quarterly Economics Briefing report for the third quarter of 2023. The report examines the state of the labor market and whether it is moving softly into balance, or seeing early signs of deterioration toward recessionary conditions.
NCCI notes that over the past quarter, the labor market has continued to evolve in a positive direction for the workers compensation system relative to the tight post-COVID market of a few years ago, with job growth, turnover, and participation have moving from the extremes of 2021 to more balanced levels and closer to pre-pandemic (2015–2019) averages. Key findings included a robust labor market, with an average of 266,000 net new jobs added over the past three months and strong annual wage growth of 4.2%, supporting premium growth in workers’ comp, and rising participation and more normalized turnover taking some pressure off the economic drivers of workers’ comp claim frequency.