Statista: Where U.S. home prices are rising the fastest (and slowest)

You will find more infographics at Statista

How Far Does $100K Stretch In Boston? You'll Be Sorry You Asked | Patch

Patch: How Far Does $100K Stretch In Boston? You'll Be Sorry You Asked

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

Read more here. 

Outwitting Walmart: FEE on Aldi phenomenon

Mark Perry: "I love Aldi and so do a lot of other consumers."

Notes on the April 2019 Employment Situation in Massachusetts: Unemployment Rate 2.9%, Payrolls +4,100.

OVERVIEW

• The state’s total unemployment rate for April dropped to 2.9 percent according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.  Over the year, the state’s unemployment rate dropped six-tenths of a percentage point.  
• From April 2018 to April 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that Massachusetts added 37,100 jobs. After adding 4,000 private sector jobs, the state netted 4,100 total new jobs. 
• Professional, Scientific and Business Services added 2,300 jobs with 11,100 jobs added over the past 12 months. 
• Education and Health Services added 1,600 jobs over the month. Over the year, this sector gained 12,900 jobs
• Manufacturing lost 500 jobs in April and has lost 1,200 jobs over the year. 
• The Construction sector added 2,400 jobs and has added 2,700 over the year. 
• Trade, Transportation and Utilities lost 3,500 jobs over the month. Over the year, the sector added 2,200 jobs.
• Financial Activities, Information and Other Services added 400, 300 and 200 jobs, respectively. All three sectors are up over the past 12 months: FA-200, I-1,700 and OS-200.
• Government added 100 jobs in April. However, over the past 12 months this sector has gained 4,900 jobs.
• The 2.9 percent rate in Massachusetts is seven-tenths of a point lower than the national rate of 3.6 percent.
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, eight states had lower unemployment rates in April, two of which were from New England: Vermont and New Hampshire. 

Table A: Historic Low Unemployment Rates in MA since 1977 

Source: https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/ststdsadata.txt

ANALYSIS

Outperforming most other states, the Massachusetts jobs creation machine continues to generate jobs— pushing the unemployment rate lower.  April’s rate matches similar ones last seen during the advent of the dotcom bubble (See Table A). 

“Year to date the Commonwealth’s economy has added 25,400 jobs showing that even with a low 2.9 percent unemployment rate, Massachusetts employers continue to add jobs to help fuel their growth needs,” Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta said today. 

This month Professional, Scientific and Business Services are up 1.9 percent over last year while Manufacturing lost 0.5 percent of its jobs. 

Year over year, the sub-sectors driving Professional Scientific and Business Services were Management of Companies and Technical Services which grew 4.1 percent and 2.4 percent respectively.  

The Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sub-sector drove Leisure and Hospitality over the past year with 7.8 percent growth. The Bay State’s Labor Force Participation (LFP) rate slid slightly in April to 67.8 percent. The national LFP rate currently is 62.8 percent.  The state labor force decreased by 3,200 workers in April; it now stands mostly unchanged at 3.84 million. There are 112,200 workers considered unemployed in Massachusetts. 

February 2000 was the last month in which the state’s unemployment rate dropped to 2.9 percent with an LFP rate of 67.9 (See Table A).  

The rate is still shy of the record lows according to records going back to 1977. from May 2000 to October 2000, the Bay State registered six straight months of a 2.6 percent unemployment rate. (See Figure A). 

Since 1977, unemployment in Massachusetts has only significantly exceeded the national rate during three periods:  during 1977-1978 (for 18 months) 1990-1993 (38 months) and 2006-2007 (16 months). 

Figure A: Comparing U.S. and Massachusetts Unemployment Rates 

1977-2019

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; FRED. 

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.

This article was republished with permission from The Library of Economics and Liberty.

Scott Sumner

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.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

Note on the April 2019 U.S. Employment Situation: U-Rate 3.6%; Jobs +263,000

OVERVIEW

• 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)


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