Overall US Wages Stagnant
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The US April jobs report shows the overall wages in that reeling country are remaining stagnant —
despite accelerating increases in both food and energy prices that people have no choice but to pay.
The average hourly wage across the economy — including salaried employees — did not grow at all in March.
It was $22.87, just as it had been in February. And from January to February, it rose only a single cent.
Over the last year, hourly wages have grown 1.7 percent.
The US April jobs report shows the overall wages in that reeling country are remaining stagnant —
despite accelerating increases in both food and energy prices that people have no choice but to pay.
The average hourly wage across the economy — including salaried employees — did not grow at all in March.
It was $22.87, just as it had been in February. And from January to February, it rose only a single cent.
Over the last year, hourly wages have grown 1.7 percent.
That matches the smallest annual increase since the recession began, in late 2007.
In the middle of 2009 — when the economy was still shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs a month —
the annual increase was significantly larger: about 2.5 percent.
To the extent Fed officials are trying to decide whether the bigger risk is an economy that may be too strong — with inflation about to soar —
or an economy that may be too weak, the evidence from the job market is quite clear.
The economy remains years away from full employment, and wages are barely rising at all.
But that simply goes to support our increasingly strong conviction that the REAL future of the US is stag-flation:
the dreaded combination of rising prices AND slow / low / no economic growth.
Have a good week.
