BETHESDA, Md. — The Auto Care Association's TrendLens interactive data platform has added three economic and industry indicators to bring additional insight to market conditions in the automotive aftermarket.
The latest additions to the TrendLens platform provide users with the ability to monitor overall employment numbers and average wages, giving new insight into what's happening in the maintenance and repair sector, the ACA said.
The three additional economic and industry indicators are: automotive maintenance and repair employment; average hourly wages — automotive maintenance and repair; and consumer loans — credit cards and revolving plans.
The addition of these three industry indicators now brings the TrendLens platform to nearly 50 key data points that can help make better, informed business decisions, the ACA said.
Access to TrendLens is free for ACA members.
Tracking automotive employment and wage levels provides insight into the overall performance indicators of the aftermarket, the ACA said.
If employment and wages are up, that indicates a healthy situation, especially if rising demand for services is met with an adequate influx of new technicians. If employment is stagnant and wages are up, that indicates that shops may have a hard time keeping up with service demand, the ACA said.
For the month of July, automotive maintenance and repair employment reached a little over 1 million, up from 961,600 in January and 956,000 in July 2021.
Average hourly wages for automotive maintenance and repair increased to $23.04 in July, from $22.15 in January and $21.12 in July 2021.
Interestingly, the average hourly wages at tire dealerships showed a downward trend, slipping to $19.93 in July, from $19.98 in January and $20.19 in July 2021.
Tracking consumer disposable income is a key predictor of aftermarket demand and consumer willingness to spend. Adding the consumer loans data helps the auto care industry better understand consumers' purchasing power, their willingness to spend and their debt servicing burden, the ACA said.
Consumer loans hit $890.4 billion in July, up from $823.3 billion in January and $761 billion in July 2021.
