Real average hourly earnings for all employees decrease 0.6% in May

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Real average hourly earnings for all employees decrease 0.6% in May

Economic News Release USDL-22-1114

Real Earnings Summary
Transmission of material in this release is embargoed until 8:30 a.m. (ET), Friday, June 10, 2022

Technical Information: [phone] * [e-mail] * www.bls.gov/ces
Media Contact: [phone] * [e-mail]

REAL EARNINGS - MAY 2022

All employees

Real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.6 percent from April to May, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This result stems from an increase of 0.3 percent in average hourly earnings combined with an increase of 1.0 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).

Real average weekly earnings decreased 0.7 percent over the month due to the change in real average hourly earnings combined with no change in the average workweek.

Real average hourly earnings decreased 3.0 percent, seasonally adjusted, from May 2021 to May 2022. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 3.9-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.


Production and nonsupervisory employees

Real average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees decreased 0.5 percent from April to May, seasonally adjusted. This result stems from a 0.6-percent increase in average hourly earnings combined with an increase of 1.1 percent in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

Real average weekly earnings decreased 0.5 percent over the month due to the change in real average hourly earnings being combined with no change in average weekly hours.

From May 2021 to May 2022, real average hourly earnings decreased 2.5 percent, seasonally adjusted. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.6 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 3.0-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.

_____________
Real Earnings for June 2022 is scheduled to be released on July 13, 2022 at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

Read more: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/realer.nr0.htm

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On an annual basis:

From May 2021 to May 2022, real average hourly earnings decreased 2.5 percent, seasonally adjusted. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.6 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 3.0-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.

* * * * *

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. From the BLS Twitter account:

Real average hourly earnings for all employees decrease 0.6% in May
http://go.usa.gov/vrU #RealEarnings #BLSdata

Link to tweet

[progree]

2. Data series Real average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory employees -

Real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000032

Interestingly, its above the level of 3 years ago, May 2019, and also above the December 2019 level (see graph and table). It got a big bump upward at the start of the pandemic as last hired - first fired were laid off first, and has been declining from that high level ever since.


nominal (before inflation-adjustment):
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000008

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Thanks, and good morning. This is not one of our upbeat days, is it? NT

[progree]

4. Good morning. No, not a good day - I read the CPI report too - everyone was expecting a slowdown

(a bit lower 12 month increase in May over May compared to April over April, not the reverse). At least that was my impression.

Maybe the Marxist-Leninist brigade will be along shortly to tell us the capitalist media is spinning this all wrong. Maybe not.

[progree]

5. Oh, Dow down 536 points (1.66%) S&P 500 down 68 points (1.69%)

S&P 500 below 4,000 again.

finance.yahoo.com's key headline: "Stocks tumble after inflation expectedly accelerates to fastest rate since 1981"

(I think they meant "unexpectedly" based on the article,

"U.S. stocks sank Friday as investors digested an update on inflation, which showed price increases unexpectedly accelerated and jumped by the most since 1981."

Ooops, naughty naughty. Not supposed to use words like "jumped" (and "soared" ), according to our local media watchdogs

[MichMan]

6. I've been told by some posters here that inflation isn't that bad because wages are going up

[oioioi]

7. North Sea Bubble (1991):

In Leningrad the people say
Perestroika can be explained this way
The people who told us
That two and two is ten
Are now trying to tell us
That two and two is five