In a few pieces out this morning, I make some noise about how unresponsive wage growth has been to the tightening job market, using the wage data from the Establishment Survey, which covers the private sector workforce. This is the key figure, showing that while wage growth clearly accelerated from 2 to 2.5% as the… Read more
Archive for the ‘Jobs’ Category
Jobs report comes in slightly weaker than expected, but the real problem is slow wage growth
The nation’s payrolls climbed 156,000 last month and the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4.4 percent, in a slightly weaker-than-expected jobs report. Wage growth is still stuck at an annual growth rate of 2.5%, the length of the average work week ticked down slightly, and payroll gains for June and July were revised down… Read more
The usually great Catherine Rampell unconvincingly objects to two improved labor standards
I’ve long been a big admirer of Catherine Rampell, but her piece today on “unintended consequences” of pro-worker policies was uncharacteristically unconvincing. She goes after two specific upgrades to existing labor standards: the increase in the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 to $15 per hour, and the increase in the salary threshold below… Read more
The robots aren’t coming. They’re here. And some are helpful.
In a public service to spare you from reading thousands of pages of both anecdote and analyses, here is a quick summary of the debate over whether automation is really killing jobs. Pro: Automation is killing jobs! The robots are coming! Anti: Nuh-uh. If it were, productivity growth, or output per hour of work, would… Read more
Jobs day! More solid jobs gains…but wage growth still not responding
The nation’s employment rolls went up 209,000 last month, and the unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 4.3%. The underlying pace of job gains, shown below, suggests a solid, healthy labor market characterized by strong employer demand for workers. That said, wage growth remains remarkably subdued. Taken together, these two facts imply that while we’re… Read more