The tightest labor market in years is driving rapid wage gains for most workers – the only problem is that red-hot inflation is quickly eroding those increases.
The Labor Department reported on Friday that average hourly earnings for all employees actually decreased 2.4% in December from the same month a year ago when factoring in the impact of rising consumer prices. On a monthly basis, average hourly earnings increased by just 0.1% in December, when factoring in the 0.5% inflation spike. By that measure, the typical U.S. worker is actually worse off today than they were a year ago, even though nominal wages are rising at the fastest pace in years.
The CPI – which measures a bevy of goods ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents – jumped 0.5% in the one-month period from November. Customers stand in line to check out at a grocery store in San Francisco, California, on Nov. 11, 2021. So-called core prices, which exclude more volatile measurements of food and energy, soared 5.5% in December from the previous year – a sharp increase from November, when it rose 4.9%. It was the steepest 12-month increase since 1991. Although energy prices fell 1.1% in December from the previous month, they're still up 29.3% from last year. Gasoline, on average, costs 49.6% than it did last year. Food prices have also climbed 6.
"Inflation at 7% is no joke," said Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors. "It’s the highest annual CPI number since 1982 and driven not by energy prices, but by just about everything else."The inflation spike has been bad news for
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