How much money we're making – November 2019
Bottom Line: In today's third story breaking down the employment report we'll look at the fun stuff...how much more money we're making. The average hourly wage for all Americans is currently $28.18. With an average work week of 34.3 hours, the average income is now $50,261. This is just the third month in American history with the average full-time employed person earning more than $50k. This info was also slightly negatively impacted by the GM strike which could provide additional positives in next month’s report.
Here are the details:
- Earnings +6 cents over last month
- +3% year over year
- Average person is earning $1,285 more than a year ago
There’s good news any way you slice the increase in income. After dipping below three percent income growth last month, we’re back to that figure again. Three percent is a key number for the economy. Consumer spending is 70% of the US economy. If we’re earning three percent more, our spending can continue to grow at that level or better. Last month we had earnings rise by 2.9% year over year. We found out in the third quarter consumer spending rose by 2.9%. It’s not complicated. If business spending picks up, we’ll really see the economy takeoff. In other words, there’s more upside to economic growth, than downside based on what I’m look at for at least the rest of 2019.
The labor market is performing extremely well as is our economy. What you hear to the contrary is false reporting by people who either don’t grasp what they’re reporting, or agenda driven to attempt to talk down the economy. It’s just not reality. Here’s a direct quote from me a month ago as well...
- Significant revisions continue with the government numbers and are likely to continue given the significant difference in private sector hiring (nearly 100k) between the ADP Report and the government report. Expect positive jobs revisions in future months
Once again, I haven’t made a career out of being wrong. The 95,000 jobs worth of upward revisions is what took this month’s report from being solid, to exceptional. Good stuff. There are two sides to stories and one side to facts. I’ll continue to provide you with the facts and keep you ahead of the curve.