Posted on 05/10/2005 2:39:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Real wages in the US are falling at their fastest rate in 14 years, according to data surveyed by the Financial Times.
Inflation rose 3.1 per cent in the year to March but salaries climbed just 2.4 per cent, according to the Employment Cost Index. In the final three months of 2004, real wages fell by 0.9 per cent.
The last time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991, when real wages declined by 1.1 per cent.
Stingy pay rises mean many Americans will have to work longer hours to keep up with the cost of living, and they could ultimately undermine consumer spending and economic growth.
Many economists believe that in spite of the unexpectedly large rise in job creation of 274,000 in April, the uneven revival in the labour market since the 2001 recession has made it hard for workers to negotiate real improvements in living standards.
Even after last month's bumper gain in employment, there are 22,000 fewer private sector jobs than when the recession began in March 2001, a 0.02 per cent fall. At the same point in the recovery from the recession of the early 1990s, private sector employment was up 4.7 per cent.
Stagnant salaries push more families towards the breadline
A surfeit of workers and the threat of off-shoring are allowing companies to call the shots on wages.
Go there
There is still little evidence that workers are gaining much traction in their negotiations, said Paul Ashworth, US analyst at Capital Economics, the consultancy. If this does not pick up, it raises the prospect of a sharper slowdown in consumer spending than we have been expecting.
Economists are divided over the best source for measuring pay increases in the US, since the government releases three main measures. A gauge of average hourly earnings is released with the employment report. This rose by 0.3 per cent in both March and April and 0.1 per cent in February. Even with a slight rise in the hours employees are working, from 33.7 to 33.9, this suggests wages are struggling to keep pace with inflation. The gauge covers non-supervisory workers, about 80 per cent of the workforce.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis figures for personal income showed wages rising at close to 6 per cent in 2004 but slowing down since. This measure also showed wages rising by just 0.3 per cent in each of the past 2 months. This is a broader gauge and includes small businesses and professional partnerships, but it measures total corporate wage bill rather than wages per person.
The Employment Cost Index, seen by some as the most reliable measure, excludes overtime and professional partnerships.
That's funny, MY inflation was almost zero and my wages went up 4% last year...hmmm.
It's ridiculous to write stories like these that throw in ALL wages earned and try and compare that to the ridiculous calculation the government uses for inflation.
Both factors are different for every person because of individual choices made.
The report says 22,000 FEWER!! private sector jobs since bush got elected, and anyways, even 839,000 new government jobs does not take care of the 8 million new immigrant job seekers. It still means that we have over 7 million more unemployed since bush got elected.
An out of date number due to the large number of self- employed and new small business creation...they are not counted!
And you'd do that by counting all 141,099,000 workers? Or is it all 133,300,000 workers? Wait, you mean there's already modeling going on?
You sound like this guy.
I'm SHOCKED!! Shocked to find modeling going on at the BLS.
Did you think that some of those 7 million may have left the labor force for other reasons?
The report says 22,000 FEWER!! private sector jobs since bush got elected, and anyways, even 839,000 new government jobs does not take care of the 8 million new immigrant job seekers.>>>>>
I have always maintained that one person added to a government payroll is in effect equal to putting several honest workers out of a job. MOST new government employees are not only non-productive but counter-productive.
Cheaper labor bump!
Well, that would explain the home prices.
Like rising costs of medical care?
He, he. They should hire some bum at minimum wage to drive these newly made cars. More drunk the better!
If that guest worker program gets passed the only race we'll see is to the bottom.
Putting aside the fact that unemployment in Europe is calculated differently and that it has different effect over there, what is has to do with USA?
Second these "839,000 jobs", how does it relate to the population growth? What are these jobs?
just like AMEX sent me that check from the savings they reaped when they offshored customer support from Phoenix to lower cost workers in India. I got some of that as one of their customers, didn't I? maybe the check was lost in the mail.
offshoring has alot to do with this. higher paying white collar jobs are being blown away by offshoring, and those that remain are seeing their salaries repriced as the US market is opened to the global labor pool.
yeah but when you can only get $250K if the doctor cuts the wrong leg, your insurance will drop by a whopping $10 a month :)
And if you want to do your own research as to where jobs have been created in the US, you can click here.
Your posting of the cartoon says it all, man.
THAT is a taboo subject in the Bush administration, sire. Yes, we must move on as we are ordered to...
You didn't pay more for gas, electricity, oil, meat, etc. Where do you live?
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