“The last thing this country needs, after all we have been through, is a manufactured crisis,” Biden said ahead of a meeting on US investment. “It’s a manufactured crisis driven by MAGA Republicans in Congress.” MAGA is the acronym for the “Make America Great Again” slogan of former president Donald Trump.by another 25 basis points to the 5%-5.25% range on Wednesday, May 3, and signaled it may pause its fastest monetary policy tightening campaign since the 1980s, though it kept a hawkish bias.
Financial activities payrolls rose by 23,000, as did the government jobs category. Government employment remains 301,000 positions below its pre-pandemic level. Manufacturing, retail, and construction payrolls rebounded after declining in March. Average hourly earnings gained 0.5% last month after advancing 0.3% in March. Wages increased 4.4% on a year-on-year basis in April after climbing 4.3% in March, coming close to alignment with other measures such as the Employment Cost Index and the Atlanta Fed’s wage tracker. Wage growth is too strong to be consistent with the Fed’s 2% inflation target.
“Prospects for a rebound in productivity in the second quarter look good,” said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College. “That will restrain unit labor costs, and all other costs should see the first outright decline in many years. The prospects for gradual disinflation in the second and third quarters still look good.”