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Wage Increases
Consumer Price Index +1.1% June 2008 Unemployment Rate 5.7% July 2008 Payroll Employment -51,000 (p) July 2008 Average Hourly Earnings +$0.06 (p) July 2008 From MSN Careers Full article To MSN Careers Excerpts: By Anthony Balderrama, CareerBuilder.com writer What do Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and entertainment mogul David Geffen have in common? Huge bank accounts and no student loans. These industry leaders are some of the most successful people in business and none of them has a college degree. The belief that you need a college education to have a well-paying and rewarding job is quickly fading. A four-year degree definitely has its benefits in the business world, but it’s not the only path to a successful career. In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), eight of the 10 fastest-growing occupations through 2014 don’t require a bachelor's degree. And these jobs, which include health technology, plumbing, firefighting and automotive repair, are less vulnerable to outsourcing. After all, if a fire breaks out, you need the fire department to be a few blocks away, not halfway around the world. Consecutive Months Of Job Growth---51 Net New Jobs November 2007---94,000 Unemployment Rate---4.7% Wage Increase---0.8% Jobs Created Since August 2003---8,350,000 WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao issued the following statement on the November employment situation report released today: "Despite challenges in the housing markets and high energy prices, we’ve now seen 51 consecutive months of job growth — the longest uninterrupted period of job growth since employment surveys have been taken. Ninety-four thousand net new jobs were created in November, and the unemployment rate held steady at a low 4.7 percent, better than market forecasts. The substantial increase in average hourly earnings in November is also good news for workers and demonstrates the effectiveness of economic policies that keep taxes low." New jobs created since the Bush Tax Cuts 8.1 Million No. of consecutive months of job growth 49 Unemployment rate 4.7 % Lower than average of the last 40 years Increase in after tax per capita personal income of 12.5% an average of $3750 per person Since the 2003 tax cuts, the country has added 1/3 of it's total wealth Wages-adjusted for inflation-increased over the last 12 months by 2.2 % for a net increase of $1266 for a 2 wage earner family Economist Brian Wesbury of First Trust Advisors points out that "earnings for workers at the 10th percentile of earners (where 90 percent of workers earn more than they do) rose 1.1 percent faster than inflation as measured by the consumer price index." Workers at the 25th percentile enjoyed wage gains of 2.3 percent above inflation, the fastest increase for any point along the income distribution, even faster than for those at the 75th percentile and 90th percentile. Education is the key. High School graduates earn hundreds of thousands more than high school dropouts during their lifetime and college graduates dwarf both groups for lifetime earnings. Stay in school, persist, make good decisions, get a job with a 401K available, invest small steady amounts and do it early in your life and young ladies, don't have children out of wedlock. Do this and in a huge majority of the cases, the American Dream is yours. Although the size of the increase was not as large as previous increases, the news is still favorable. Personal income rose at a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.4%, after increasing 0.5% in September, according to the Commerce Department. Personal spending grew 0.2%, after falling 0.2% in September.
Wage increases, which lagged other indicators for more than a year after the 2003 tax cuts, continued very favorably in September. Now, however, American workers enjoyed the fastest rise in wages and benefits in more than two years, in the July-September period. Wages and salaries were up 3.2% in the past year-Sept. 2005 To Sept. 2006 compared to 2.3% for the prior year-Sept. 2004 To Sept. 2005
Benefit costs such as health insurance and pensions took a big jump during the third quarter rising 1.1%, according to the Labor Department. Benefits were up .8% in the previous quarter.
These wage and benefit increases, are very good news for workers, but the Feds get jittery over the possible effects on inflation, if the news for workers, is too good. These numbers, however, seem to have a good balance for the second year in a row. _________________________________________________________________ Compensation was up 3.3% in the past year, compared to 3% for the prior year.
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