Via Reuters:
America has added more than a million jobs in the space of three months but wages, especially for blue-collar workers, are showing few signs of gains.
The Federal Reserve is following wage increases as well as employment numbers as it weighs whether to raise interest rates this year, and strong job creation data released on Friday shifted Wall Street bets on the timing of a hike to September from October.
Hourly wage rates rose a sturdy 12 cents last month, but wages were up only 2.2 percent from a year earlier, a historically slow pace. Employment agencies, which play an increasingly large role in supplying workers to America’s companies, say a surplus of labor is holding back wage gains, particularly for blue-collar workers.
“The supply of unskilled labor is still pretty plentiful,” said George Corona, chief operations officer at Kelly Services (KELYA.O), one of the country’s largest providers of temporary employees for light assembly plants and distribution centers.
This is notable because the most of the MSM is in party mode after the jobs report today. Kudos to Reuters for digging just a bit deeper and finding the kernels of not-so-great news that always seem to be lurking in any positive economic news these days.
The media cheerleaders for the Obama economy take everything on faith, however, and spin the day away for their messiah. CNBC‘s Ben White glosses over the “historically slow pace” of wages growth that Reuters is reporting because it’s “moving in the right direction” and “economists expect” things to get better soon.
You can bet the farm that Ben White would immediately find the pace of the wage growth exceedingly problematic if White House were occupied by a Republican.
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