Friday’s jobs report beat expectations, showing the economy tacked on another 372,000 jobs in June — but the robust showing was still a sobering reminder of how much inflation is gnawing at workers’ paychecks.
Wage growth in June generally didn’t keep pace with inflation, according to government data. One sector where it did, leisure and hospitality, generally offers below-average wages and still hasn’t added back all of the jobs it lost during the pandemic, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted.Make no mistake, the 5.1% gain is significant in the context of the last decade. From 2012 to February 2020, average hourly earnings were growing in the roughly 2% to 3% range per year.
Health care, which added 57,000 jobs over the month, falls under the auspices of education and health services in the wage data. Average hourly earnings in the category rose 6%. The June 2022 average hourly wage was $31.72. There are 176,000 fewer jobs in the sector compared to pre-pandemic levels. In May, the sector had 1.57 million job openings out of the economy’s approximate 11.3 million openings, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said earlier this week.
It’s all fake numbers