How much (more) money we're making – March 2019
Bottom Line:In today's third story breaking down the employment report we'll explore real incomes. The average hourly wage for all Americans is currently $27.66 and with an average work week of 34.4 hours the average income is now $49,478. That’s an increase of $35 over just a month ago.
Here are the details:
- Earnings are up +11 cents per hour
- +3.4% year over year
Next to the record low unemployment rate for Hispanics, this is the best part of this month’s employment story. We’re not just making 3% more than we were a year ago, we’re seeing it continue to accelerate – now up to 3.4% more year over year. This is the best year over year growth in over a decade and demonstrates the US economy can continue to grow.
What’s more is that through a combination of 3.4% raises/bonuses and the benefit of the tax cuts the average American has nearly $3,500 more to show for their same work today compared with just over a year ago. With consumer spending making up about 70% of the US economy – it's obvious why the economy has been strong and there’s enough here to see that there’s still room for optimism going forward.
It’s never the case that the headline unemployment rate and jobs added or lost will tell the whole story, but that’s especially true this month. Look for heavy revisions in next month’s report that should generally be favorable as the government catches up to accounting for the full impact of the partial government shutdown. There were stark differences in private employment between the ADP Report and the government report. Look for the ADP Report’s #’s to be the road map for where the government revisions are heading. To put it another way... Next month’s report has the potential to be exceptional.