Labor productivity is inching along. Real wages are not keeping up.

Here’s a Tweet this morning that caught my attention, along with my response.

Wage growth is just around the corner ? pic.twitter.com/FQd6OuToyN

— Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) May 3, 2018

Wage growth has been “just around the corner” for about 9 years https://t.co/juufeYmoVU

— Mike Mish Shedlock (@MishGEA) May 3, 2018

I suspect the comment from Sven was sarcastic, but I am not positive.

Real Wages

Inquiring minds may be wondering how real wages are doing. Today’s report from the BLS on Productivity and Costs sheds some light.

Congratulations!

Congratulations nonfarm business workers. On average, you made 0.2% more than you did a year ago. Of course, that assumes you believe the BLS CPI inflation stats.

In you worked in nondurable manufacturing, oops. You were down 2.4% from last quarter and 1.5% from a year ago.

Fourth Quarter 2017 Stats

Clean Sweep

In the fourth quarter it was a clean sweep. Workers lost money no matter where they worked despite rising productivity.

If one believes the BLS understates the CPI, the numbers are even worse.

Average Wages

Bear in mind these numbers are averages and averages make things look far better than they really are. A small percentage of workers getting big raises skew the numbers.

Median Wages

Median wages, only available on a 1.5 to 2.0 year lag, tell the real story. The last data on real median wages is from May of 2016.

Real median wages declined in seven out of the last eleven years!

For discussion, please see How the Fed’s Inflation Policies Crucify Workers in Pictures.

Also note that Consumers Expect No Improvement in Spending, Income, or Inflation.

Lawrence Yun, the National Association or Realtors’ (NAR) chief economist,Blames Inventory, Weather as Pending Home Sales Tumble 3% Year-Over-Year.

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