Up, and not by much. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
By Laura Conaway
With unemployment on the rise in September, average hourly wages grew by a single penny, to $18.67. The length of the average workweek fell back by 0.1 hours to its historic low of 33 hours, first reached in June.
Bloomberg News today hauls out the "D" word -- deflation, which Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz says is "definitely a threat right now." Technically, deflation is when prices are falling but you don't care because wages are falling faster. It's a nightmare spiral.
Today's hourly wage growth of a penny comes in a year that saw zero growth from March to April and a penny growth from May to June. We may be stuck with this kind of stagnation for a while. From Bloomberg:
With unemployment elevated, companies may not need to raise pay to attract workers, even when the economy picks up.
The Commerce Department today rounded out the gloomy with its report on manufacturers' shipments, inventories and orders. In August, new orders fell by 0.8 percent after rising for four straight months. Only when companies have left over work can they be expected to hire more workers.
After the jump, a chart of that shrinking average workweek.
Back to a record low. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
categories: Employment, Indicators
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