More Money

Last week, the Employment-Cost Index, which looks quarterly at wages and benefits paid to civilian workers, and another survey that looks at hourly earnings/month both showed wages rising at an annual rate of 3.1%, the fastest since 08Q3 and 9/09, respectively. Importantly, these increases remain non-inflationary as annual wage growth minus labor productivity growth (1.3%) is 1.8%, below the Fed’s 2% inflation target. The labor market can get still tighter.