You will find more infographics at Statista
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Thursday, May 23, 2019
How Far Does $100K Stretch In Boston? You'll Be Sorry You Asked | Patch
Here's what the authors had to say:
"Massachusetts has a reputation as a high-tax state, but a whole host of high costs lands Boston in the bottom 10 when it comes to take-home pay on a $100,000 salary. City residents suffer from high rent and grocery costs as well, along with the second-highest healthcare expenses of any city.
- Federal income taxes: $17,262.50
- Net pay after income taxes: $74,197.70
- Annual rent: $32,496
- Annual groceries: $5,245
- Annual utilities: $1,874.64
- Annual driving costs: $8,037
- Annual healthcare: $9,234
- Income leftover: $17,311
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Scott Sumner: The Myth of Stagnant US Wages: Fed Data Show the Story Was All Wrong
After the 2016 election, several pundits suggested that the Trump victory reflected frustration with stagnant real wages. Unfortunately, this argument is based on a misconception. The average hourly earnings series at the FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) data site only goes back 12 years, but real wages were doing well before the 2016 election:
By the way, in nominal terms, average hourly earnings are currently $27.77/hour. FRED does have a much longer series for average wages earned by production and nonsupervisory employees (which currently stands at $23.31):
I could not find median hourly wages, but they did have data on median weekly wages (currently $905):
There was a period of stagnant real wages, but it ended in the mid-1990s. All of these series show significant growth in real wages since the mid-1990s. Whatever explains the rise of populism in America, it is not stagnant wages. By the way, these time series understate the growth in total labor compensation, as the cost of fringe benefits such as health care has risen faster than nominal wage growth.
Alternatively, if you believe that health benefits are nearly worthless (my view), then the nominal wage series should be deflated by a price index that excludes health care. That would show even more rapid growth in real wages.
PS. There is one downside to writing a post and then delaying the publication. Today’s Bloomberg has an article that makes many of the same points, and in some cases more effectively. But it doesn’t have my graphs.
Scott B. Sumner is the director of the Program on Monetary Policy at the Mercatus Center and a professor at Bentley University. He blogs at the Money Illusion and Econlog.
By the way, in nominal terms, average hourly earnings are currently $27.77/hour. FRED does have a much longer series for average wages earned by production and nonsupervisory employees (which currently stands at $23.31):
I could not find median hourly wages, but they did have data on median weekly wages (currently $905):
There was a period of stagnant real wages, but it ended in the mid-1990s. All of these series show significant growth in real wages since the mid-1990s. Whatever explains the rise of populism in America, it is not stagnant wages. By the way, these time series understate the growth in total labor compensation, as the cost of fringe benefits such as health care has risen faster than nominal wage growth.
Alternatively, if you believe that health benefits are nearly worthless (my view), then the nominal wage series should be deflated by a price index that excludes health care. That would show even more rapid growth in real wages.
PS. There is one downside to writing a post and then delaying the publication. Today’s Bloomberg has an article that makes many of the same points, and in some cases more effectively. But it doesn’t have my graphs.
Scott Sumner
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.
Friday, May 3, 2019
Note on the April 2019 U.S. Employment Situation: U-Rate 3.6%; Jobs +263,000
OVERVIEW
ANALYSIS
This month’s report is a rebounding blockbuster, considering two months ago the U.S. stock market and policy makers were stunned by the creation of only 56,000 jobs. (The original number was 33,000).
Wall Street estimated the April payrolls number at 185,000 jobs. Earlier in the week, the ADP National Employment Report, estimated the creation of 275,000 new private sector jobs; the BLS reported private sector job creation at 236,000 jobs.
Retail trade changed little in April; the sector was down 12,000 jobs but the motor vehicle and parts dealers subsector added 8,000 jobs. General merchandise stores suffered a loss of 9,000 jobs.
Revisions to previous reports were mixed. The February payrolls number was revised upward to 56,000 from 33,000 and the March number was revised down from 196,000 to 189,000. Still the revisions identified 16,000 more jobs than previously reported. The three-month moving average settled at 169,000 per month. Similar revisions from the earlier three months resulted in a three-month average of 180,000.
The unemployment rate of 3.6 percent is the lowest since 1969.
The current economy, based on supply-side reforms, is benefiting workers and instilling confidence in consumers. Not so long ago, market watchers were worried about the slowdown in consumer spending as a bellwether of an almost certain downturn.
On Thursday, the BLS reported than nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2019, with output increasing by 4.1 percent and hours worked increased 0.5 percent. Along with productivity (another blow-out number), the job market is at a sweet spot.
Today’s report noted that average hourly earnings over the past year have increased by 3.2 percent. Workers and consumers are more careful about how they treat homeowner equity which is 16 percent higher than 2006, the advent of the Great Recession. Apparently increased wages serve as a bulwark against reckless home equity borrowing.
As a result, workers are saving more. The article to read is “Why Are Americans Suddenly Saving?” by Matthew C. Klein in Barron’s on April 22, 2019.
Source: Author’s calculations based on BLS and US Census historical data (Total Retail Sales)
Conte Consulting: Editorial Services | Web Content Design & Management |Public Policy Analysis
- Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 263,000 and the unemployment rate declined to 3.6 percent, moving down 0.2 percentage point from the previous month according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- The Labor Force Participation (LFP) rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 62.8 percent. Nonetheless, the rate was unchanged from a year ago. The Employment-Population ratio also remained at 60.6 percent. Since October 2018, the rate has been either 60.6 percent or 60.7 percent.
- Professional and Business Services (+76,000) and Construction (+33,000) led all sectors in the April payrolls. Employment in Health Care (+27,000) did not finish in the top two sectors for growth but along with Professional Services (+535,000) added the most jobs over the past year with Health Care adding +404,000 jobs.
- With gains in nonresidential specialty trade contractors and in heavy and civil engineering, Construction has added 33,000 jobs. For the year, the sector has added 22,000 jobs.
- Manufacturing sector employment (+4,000) changed little for the third month in a row. In the 12 months prior to February 2019 the industry added on average 22,000 jobs per month.
- Average hourly earnings rose by 6 cents to $27.77. In April, average workweek for all employees decreased by 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours matching the rate for February 2019.
- The number of persons employed part-time held was unchanged at 4.7 million in April. The number of long-termed unemployed (greater than 27 weeks) remained unchanged at 1.2 million and remained to account for 21.1 percent of all unemployed.
- The following sectors saw little or no change in employment: Mining, Wholesale Trade, Transportation and Warehousing, Information, Leisure and Hospitality, and Government.
ANALYSIS
This month’s report is a rebounding blockbuster, considering two months ago the U.S. stock market and policy makers were stunned by the creation of only 56,000 jobs. (The original number was 33,000).
Wall Street estimated the April payrolls number at 185,000 jobs. Earlier in the week, the ADP National Employment Report, estimated the creation of 275,000 new private sector jobs; the BLS reported private sector job creation at 236,000 jobs.
Retail trade changed little in April; the sector was down 12,000 jobs but the motor vehicle and parts dealers subsector added 8,000 jobs. General merchandise stores suffered a loss of 9,000 jobs.
Revisions to previous reports were mixed. The February payrolls number was revised upward to 56,000 from 33,000 and the March number was revised down from 196,000 to 189,000. Still the revisions identified 16,000 more jobs than previously reported. The three-month moving average settled at 169,000 per month. Similar revisions from the earlier three months resulted in a three-month average of 180,000.
The unemployment rate of 3.6 percent is the lowest since 1969.
The current economy, based on supply-side reforms, is benefiting workers and instilling confidence in consumers. Not so long ago, market watchers were worried about the slowdown in consumer spending as a bellwether of an almost certain downturn.
On Thursday, the BLS reported than nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2019, with output increasing by 4.1 percent and hours worked increased 0.5 percent. Along with productivity (another blow-out number), the job market is at a sweet spot.
Today’s report noted that average hourly earnings over the past year have increased by 3.2 percent. Workers and consumers are more careful about how they treat homeowner equity which is 16 percent higher than 2006, the advent of the Great Recession. Apparently increased wages serve as a bulwark against reckless home equity borrowing.
As a result, workers are saving more. The article to read is “Why Are Americans Suddenly Saving?” by Matthew C. Klein in Barron’s on April 22, 2019.
Source: Author’s calculations based on BLS and US Census historical data (Total Retail Sales)
Conte Consulting: Editorial Services | Web Content Design & Management |Public Policy Analysis
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