The US monthly employment data has been the single most important high frequency economic report. It was a key in the recession of the Great Financial Crisis, and it was an important metric of the recovery. Recent reports have been distorted by the storms in late Q3 and early Q4. September jobs growth fell to …
One of the longstanding challenges to growth US aggregate demand has been that wages have not kept pace with inflation and productivity. The decoupling appears to have taken place in the late 1960s or early 1970s depending on exactly which metric one uses. In my book, the Political Economy of Tomorrow, I argue the decoupling …
Great Graphic: US Wage Growth Exceeds Productivity Growth Read More »
Output is a function of how many hours are being worked and productivity. Ahead of tomorrow’s US employment report, let’s look closer at these two variables. The average weekly hours worked in the US has been fairly steady in recent years. The average over the past year through March was 34.4 hours, and the three-year …