"The employment market isn't what it was in this region last year," said Edwin W. Koc, director of research and legislative affairs, who has conducted the survey since the mid-1990s.
MidAtlantic's numbers are current as of mid-April. Its pool of companies primarily reflects the area's manufacturing heritage.
Numbers of jobs decreased in three of five categories, and wage growth slowed in four of the five in the survey released Friday.
U.S. Labor Department statistics made public Friday also reflect nearly flat job creation in the region. From May 2005 to May 2006, the number of new jobs increased 1.2 percent. A year earlier, the number had increased 1.3 percent.
"Last year, we saw stronger demand across the board," Koc said. "This year, I don't see that strong demand."
But different surveys show different results.
Monster.com produces a monthly report based on its job-board listings. In Philadelphia, a Monster index rose steadily from May 2005 until February and has been flat since then.
Monster.com's report shows a strong trend in information-technology hiring, just as MidAtlantic's does.
Of the five job categories detailed in MidAtlantic's survey, only IT saw increased raises.
As a group, for example, office workers - a category that includes accountants and mail-room clerks - snagged average raises of 2.9 percent. In 2005, their pay went up 3.7 percent.
The Consumer Price Index, a widely used cost-of-living benchmark, rose 4 percent from April 2005 to April 2006, the period covered by the MidAtlantic survey.
"In general, the story of wages since 2001 is that they are flat, and they are flat for everyone except the CEO and his friends," said Stephen Herzenberg, an economist with the Keystone Research Center, a labor-oriented policy development institute in Harrisburg.
