{"id":1004111250,"date":"2015-01-15T06:11:51","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T14:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004111250"},"modified":"2022-12-08T06:48:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T14:48:24","slug":"economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Economy Watch: Jobs Numbers Good, Wage Numbers Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor<\/em><\/p>\n<p>At the end of November, there will 5 million job openings nationwide, more than 20 percent more than a year earlier. That\u2019s the *<a href=\"\/\/urldefense.proofpoint.com\/v2\/url?u=http-3A__www.bls.gov_news.release_jolts.nr0.htm&amp;d=AwIFaQ&amp;c=011sAuWmEGuAVOWaydfJseI4cXS0FNE1rSze05FbvBE&amp;r=IEDDXash53XwVW_6mQI49-48XDaK3_ELzRValSCteaI&amp;m=PAbYe3FpHCjPAyVQ21k4OfSwlJuVOYsOQSVXj7oMxS4&amp;s=y5riQofPRjDkITVhmcGWom5QlaoF07WcNo6jHRilafo&amp;e=\">latest number<\/a>* from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it\u2019s another positive indicator for the direction of the economy. The more job openings, the better, since that means businesses are hiring and possibly \u2013 just possibly \u2013 feeling the need to pay more than they have in recent years, which is still the missing piece of the puzzle for a full, bone fide U.S. recovery.<\/p>\n<p>Another recent BLS number shows the problem: In 2014, average earnings rose only by 1.7 percent, or about enough to keep up with inflation (and in December, wages actually fell a little). Until there\u2019s more progress on wage growth, anemic wages are going to act as a drag on certain real estate sectors: multi-family rents, for instance, which have done terrifically in recent years, probably have only so much more runway without an increases in renters\u2019 wages.<\/p>\n<p>Why aren\u2019t wages rising? Economists\u2019 opinions on the matter vary (if you put all the world\u2019s economists together end-to-end, they wouldn\u2019t reach a conclusion). One idea is that the current unemployment rate isn\u2019t low enough to put upward pressure on wages \u2013 5.4 percent is swell, but that\u2019s only the highline number. A lot of other non-working people aren\u2019t counted in that number, which the BLS calls U-3. The much higher U-6, which counts everyone who doesn\u2019t have a job, or has a part-time job they don\u2019t want, is arguably a more accurate predictor of upward wage pressure. The U-6 has gotten better in recent years, but it\u2019s still pretty high at 11.2 percent.<\/p>\n<p>A less charitable interpretation of wage stagnation is that it\u2019s part of a much longer pattern of ownership feasting on labor\u2019s productivity gains of the last 35 years or so. After all, U.S. worker productivity is up 65 percent since 1979, wages only 8 percent in real terms. Someone\u2019s pocketing the difference.<\/p>\n<p>In a related note, the following is a bit good bit of news regarding household economics: the Fed reports that the U.S. household debt service ratio \u2013 how much of a household\u2019s income goes to paying debt, in other words \u2013 was very low in the third quarter of 2014 at 9.98 percent. A little less than half of that total goes to service mortgage debt, a little more than half to serve other kinds of debt. The figure\u2019s important because it shows a rational reaction (among a very large number of people) to the reality of wage stagnation. Back just before the recession, the debt service ratio was more than 13 percent, much of that representing large mortgages that turned out to be unsustainably large. That much debt helped make a bad recession much worse.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Job openings were plentiful in November nationwide. wages, on the other hand, rose at a snail&#8217;s pace if at all in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":952,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004111250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Economy Watch: Jobs Numbers Good, Wage Numbers Bad - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Economy Watch: Jobs Numbers Good, Wage Numbers Bad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Job openings were plentiful in November nationwide. wages, on the other hand, rose at a snail&#039;s pace if at all in 2014.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-15T14:11:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-08T14:48:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anna Spiewak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anna Spiewak\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1bbb99675c2609ea2e6792f8b25d7b76\"},\"headline\":\"Economy Watch: Jobs Numbers Good, Wage Numbers Bad\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-15T14:11:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-08T14:48:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":483,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-jobs-numbers-good-wage-numbers-bad\\\/\",\"name\":\"Economy Watch: Jobs Numbers Good, Wage Numbers Bad - 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