A decade ago, low-income workers saw wages grow at the highest rate of any Americans. Now, the opposite is true, and the gap is widening between how quickly wages increase for wealthy and poorer U.S. households. In a Monday blog post titled "K-shaped economy," Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok warned the growing disparity is yet another sign of today's economy continuing to serve the rich, while poor Americans continue to struggle.
The UK jobs market showed further signs of cooling in September as advertised vacancies dropped -2.4% month-on-month to 826,205 jobs, echoing ONS data that highlights a 39th consecutive period of vacancy decline, according to the latest UK Job Market Report by job matching platform Adzuna. This means open roles are now -4.1% lower than a year ago, and alarmingly, September records the lowest vacancy level this year, suggesting employers are continuing to scale back hiring plans after a strong start to the year.
By the numbers: Marion County's paycheck increase brought Indy's average weekly wages to $1,779, or around $137 more a week than last year's average pay, per BLS' preliminary numbers. In Hamilton County, average weekly wages rose 2.6%, or around $38, to $1,476. Hendricks County wages rose 2.2%, or around $35, to $1,083. Caveat: The data tracks where people earn their money, not where they live.
In a move that comes as no surprise, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted to keep interest rates unchanged at 4%. The decision reflects the MPC's concern that inflation, which held steady at 3.8% in August, remains too far above the 2% target to justify an early easing. Persistent wage growth and services inflation are the key reasons for this cautious stance, with underlying price pressures proving slow to unwind.
"The year started with strong job growth, but that momentum has been whipsawed by uncertainty," Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, said in the press release.She cited a mix of factors that are weighing on hiring decisions, "including labor shortages, skittish consumers, and AI disruptions."ADP's August report is among the first to namecheck AI disruptions, a rare admission that artificial intelligence is now beginning to reshape hiring sentiment.
There's more troubling news for the white-collar job market: wage growth is falling short of inflation. A Bankrate analysis used employment cost index and consumer price index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to look at how the gap between wage and salary growth and inflation has changed since 2021. The difference allowed Bankrate to identify the industries with better worker bargaining power. Financial activities and professional and business services fell on the wrong side of that divide. Wage growth falling behind inflation in those sectors adds to the bleak picture of the white-collar labor market.
