Part 3: How much (more) money we're making
Bottom Line: In today's third story breaking down the employment report from February we'll explore real incomes. The average hourly wage for all Americans is currently $26.75 and with an average work week of 34.5 hours the average income is now $47,990. Here are the highlights:
+4 cents per hour (month over month)
+2.6% year over year
+5.8% on an annualized basis
There's lots of good stuff here. The impact of the improved and improving economy continued to shine last month. It's extremely difficult to get everything moving in a positive direction at the same time but that's exactly what happened in February. Here's a rundown:
Best Feb for jobs since 1999
Positive job revisions
Better labor participation rate
Working more hours
Getting a raise
Lower minority unemployment across the board
The reason why the year-over-year wage growth shows at a decent but not great 2.6%, whereas the annualized number is pointing to a 5.8% increase in take home pay, is the one-two punch of the ramping up of employment and the tax cuts hitting paychecks. Basically, it's like this. If you're doing the same thing you were a year ago you're taking in 5.8% more through a combination of raises, bonuses and lower taxes. If you've changed jobs or gained employment for the first time in over a year you're probably doing about 2.6% better than you would have been this time last year. That's not a perfect explanation but it's the simplest without going into the weeds. There's a lot to feel good about in our economy right now & fingers are crossed that the mo' continues.
Until next month...