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☆ Americans’ pay gains rose faster than expected so far this year
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

The Employment Cost Index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.2% last quarter, faster growth than the 0.9% increase the prior quarter, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday. On an annual basis, the index that measures changes in wages and benefits was unchanged at 4.2% for the year ending in March. Economists had expected quarterly growth to come in at 0.9% and for annual gains to slow to 4%. The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring the trajectory of wage gains as there’s a concern that accelerated compensation growth may serve as an inflation pressure. The index also includes controls for changes in the composition of employment, essentially measuring wage costs for the same jobs over time.

Persons: ’, Economists Organizations: CNN, of Labor Statistics, Dow, Nasdaq, Federal, Fed

☆ This is the least affordable housing market since 1984. It’s getting worse
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Wannabe homebuyers are getting hammered by a painful combination of high mortgage rates and high home prices. For the first time, monthly payments are above $2,500 – and that doesn’t even include taxes, insurance or other fees. Turmoil in the bond market and the Federal Reserve’s war on inflation have driven up mortgage rates to levels unseen since 2000. Aided by emergency action from the Fed, mortgage rates briefly tumbled below 2.7% in late 2020 and early 2021. At today’s rates, monthly payments on a $500,000 home would stand at roughly $3,265 after putting 20% down.

Persons: Ronald Reagan, Andy Walden, They’ve, Freddie Mac Organizations: New, New York CNN, Intercontinental Exchange, ICE, New York Stock Exchange Locations: New York, homeownership

WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve rose in August, boosted mainly by higher gas prices. Friday's report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose 0.4% from July to August, up from just 0.2% the previous month. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, though, “core” inflation rose by the smallest amount in nearly three years, evidence that inflation pressures continue to ease. Compared with a year earlier, overall prices rose 3.5% in August, slightly higher than the 3.4% increase in July. The inflation gauge that was issued Thursday, called the personal consumption expenditures price index, is separate from the better-known consumer price index.

Persons: ” Rubeela Farooqi, ’ paychecks, Austan Goolsbee, ” Goolsbee, “, ” Organizations: WASHINGTON, Federal, Commerce Department, Fed, Republicans, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Locations: July’s

Biden said that when negotiations began, he encouraged leaders of the two sides to stay at the bargaining table as long as possible. The head of the UAW said the union's negotiators “are hard at work at the bargaining table.”The UAW strike is just one of many labor disruptions. Still, a wider strike by the UAW could cause parts of the U.S. economy to shudder. The chain reaction across parts suppliers to the stores and restaurants that auto workers patronize could hurt local economies in Michigan, Wisconsin and other states that could be pivotal in next year’s election. Former President Donald Trump, the early Republican front-runner, said that union workers jobs are at risk because of Biden’s push to use of government incentives to build more EVs.

Persons: Joe Biden, autoworkers, ”, ” Biden, Stellantis, Biden, Julie Su, Gene Sperling, Shawn Fain, “, ’, Suzanne Clark, Joshua Bolten, ” Fain, Joe Brusuelas, Donald Trump, Trump, Jill Colvin Organizations: WASHINGTON, Big, White, United Auto Workers, General Motors, Ford, UAW, GM, Fiat Chrysler, Workers, Labor Department, Democratic, Business, U.S . Chamber of Commerce, RSM, Oxford Economics, Republican, NBC News Locations: Detroit, California , Oregon, Washington, U.S, Michigan , Wisconsin, China, United States, America

☆ The US economy grew stronger than expected in the second quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Washington CNN —The US economy picked up steam in the second quarter despite punishing rate hikes and still-high inflation, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Economic growth in the second quarter was driven by business investment, government purchases, inventory investment and consumer spending, though at a much weaker pace than in the first quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of economic output, grew at just a 1.6% rate in the second quarter, down sharply from a 4.2% rate in the first three months of the year. Nonresidential business investment rose sharply to a 7.7% growth rate in the second quarter, up from a 0.6% rate in the beginning of the year. The GDP report showed that spending on structure slowed to a 9.7% rate in the second quarter from a 15.8% rate in the prior one.

Persons: “, Lydia Boussour, ’, ” Shannon Seery, Seery, —, ”, Diane Swonk, Thursday’s, Carol Schleif, Jerome Powell Organizations: Washington CNN, Commerce Department, Gross, Federal Reserve, Fed, CNN, Employers, Wells, Investment Bank, Manufacturers, KPMG, restrengthens Investors, BMO Family Office, Investors, “ Locations: EY

☆ Americans' wages are finally outpacing inflation. But could it last?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

For more than two years, persistent and pervasive inflation has taken big bites out of Americans’ paychecks. Annual real weekly wages were up 0.6% last month, a rate that’s a tick below the 0.7% gain seen in February 2020. June also marked the second consecutive month of year-over-year real hourly wage growth — the first back-to-back months of gains since early 2021. Fears of a dreaded “wage-price spiral” — when rising wages and prices feed into each other — have made a bogeyman out of wage growth. And finally, supply-side inflation has drastically cooled to the point where annual inflation is practically flat — which, ideally, gives firms more wiggle room to pay workers, she said.

Persons: hasn’t, ’, That’s, ”, William Ferguson, Gertrude B, Austin, it’s, Alex Pelle, “, Sung Won Sohn, Ben Bernanke, ” Pelle, Julia Pollak, they’ve Organizations: Minneapolis CNN, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Grinnell College, stoke, Mizuho Securities, Loyola Marymount University, SS, San Francisco Fed, BLS Locations: Minneapolis, Iowa

☆ Will wages outpace inflation for long? It depends on the job
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Washington, DC CNN —Wages are now finally beating inflation, according to the latest quarterly data on wage growth. That was the biggest monthly increase since March 2022, though wage growth had gradually slowed since then. “The folks who left one company and went to another are the ones who are still benefiting from wage growth,” said Morgan Llewellyn, chief data scientist at Jobvite. Part of the continued strength in wage growth largely has to do with employers’ difficulty in hiring, which varies by industry. “Wage growth has still been higher for job changers than job stayers and that suggests that there’s still a shortage of labor for some companies,” said Dawn Fay, operational president at staffing firm Robert Half.

☆ Junior doctor strike: Some of England's trainee doctors are paid less than fast-food workers. They've had enough
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“For too long we have been undervalued,” Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the BMA junior doctors committee, told a crowd of striking doctors Tuesday. It is difficult to compare the salaries of UK junior doctors with those of their international peers, said Lucina Rolewicz, a researcher at Nuffield Trust, a healthcare think-tank. Junior doctors make up nearly 40% of England’s NHS doctors, according to the confederation. But NHS junior doctors have been squeezed for well over a decade, says former radiologist Tania King-Mohammad. “[Junior doctors’] pay is not reflective of their education, dedication and commitment,” King-Mohammad said.

☆ Shoppers are dipping into savings and going into debt. That could cause a holiday hangover
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

And that would be problematic for an economy that is driven by consumer spending. But the savings rate has come down since, in large part due to the high cost of living. The savings rate fell to just 2.3% in October, according to government statistics released last week. By contrast, the savings rate in 2019 averaged nearly 9%, according to Moody’s. Markowska expects consumer spending to remain solid until layoffs pickup steam, likely during the third quarter of next year.

☆ The economy may be in better shape than you think...for now
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The consensus forecast from economists surveyed by Reuters is that GDP grew at an annualized pace of 2.1% in the third quarter. (This will be the first estimate for third-quarter GDP, and there will be several revisions in the coming weeks.) That also means the Fed will likely continue to sharply raise interest rates to finally choke off inflation once and for all. Those rate hikes helped cause a so-called double-dip recession, where the economy suffered two downturns between 1980 and 1982. In other words, the much-hoped-for “soft landing” for the economy could turn out to be a pipe dream.

☆ Tech earnings are coming and they probably won’t be pretty
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB)-parent Meta, Microsoft (MSFT), Twitter (TWTR) and Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL) will each report earnings results the following week. “People probably should be bracing themselves for these results,” said Scott Kessler, technology global sector lead at research firm Third Bridge Group. Rampant inflation is eating away at consumers’ paychecks and reducing their ability to spend freely on tech products and services. To make matters worse, tech companies must also confront the growing strength of the US dollar, which is currently trading at its highest level in two decades. Many of the issues currently weighing on tech companies are unlikely to let up anytime soon, which is why industry watchers will be paying close attention to the guidance these companies offer for the rest of 2022.

☆ The new allowance rule? Allow for inflation
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Chris Taylor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationNEW YORK, Sept 29 (Reuters) - If you are feeling the effects of inflation, here is a news flash: Your kid is, too. The year-over-year inflation rate in August was 8.3% – dipping slightly from previous highs, but still eating into parents’ paychecks. Which begs the question: How much should parents factor inflation into their allowance-setting decisions, if at all? After all, the 3.5% year-over-year allowance bump doesn’t really reflect the full scope of all the inflationary pressures out there. “So parents might be giving them extra jobs outside their allowances, in order to compensate for inflation,” he says.

☆ Workforce at Alabama chicken plants includes migrant teens
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +20 min

At Amelia’s request, Reuters agreed not to identify her hometown, the chicken plant where she now works, or the exact job she performs there. She said she was determined to get here because Rosa told her she could find work quickly. Amelia provided her new credentials to a staffing firm that supplies laborers to a local chicken plant, she said. Some firms deduct as much as $40 a week from employees’ paychecks for the service, four workers told Reuters. She rarely leaves Rosa’s trailer except to head to and from the chicken plant.

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