Part 3: How much (more) money we're making:
Bottom Line: In today's third story breaking down the employment report from September we'll explore real incomes. The average hourly wage for all Americans is currently $26.55. Here are a couple of highlights:
+12 cents per hour over the past month
+2.9% year over year
Average hours worked - 34.4
There's plenty to like this month. This is the gem within all of the employment data from Friday. Improved labor participation and simultaneously wages increased at their fastest rate of the year in September. With a 2.9% average increase year-over-year, we're almost at the magic bean of 3% increases that we haven't had since 2007. With second quarter economic growth coming in at 3.1%, the best in years and the follow-through showing up in increased wages, that's a really good sign going forward but - or should I say butt? The hurricanes are tragic whenever the happen but it's especially unfortunate given the economic momentum we were experiencing prior to them. It's possible that we had negative economic growth in September which will ensure that there's zero chance of backing up the 2nd quarter's economic growth with a repeat performance in the 3rd quarter. We also don't know what the longer-term impact will be. Will the economy pick right back up and resume the best growth in years? Or are we going to be back to low grow and a long rebuild again?
Until next month...