Real average weekly earnings decreased by 0.1% from June to July

[papau]

Real average weekly earnings decreased by 0.1% from June to July, according to data from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). According to a BLS news release, a 0.4% increase in average hourly earnings was offset by a 0.5% increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

Output at US factories, mines, and utilities rose by a smaller-than-expected 0.4% in July, but capacity use rose to 82.4% (meaning old factories closed ans remaining are working harder), the highest rate since June 2000, from a downwardly revised 82.3% in June, according to the Federal Reserve.

The Commerce Department reported that construction of new homes fell in July for the fifth time in the past six months, dropping 2.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.795 million units. It was the slowest building pace for new homes since November 2004.

Permits for future groundbreaking fell 6.5% in July to a 1.747 million unit pace, the slowest since August 2002, and the biggest monthly decline since September 1999. US single-family housing starts fell 2.3% in July to an annual pace of 1.452 million units.

The Labor Department noted that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4% in July (a 0.5% increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W)), and while that was up from June's 0.2% increase, the so-called "core" CPI, which excludes more volatile food and energy categories, rose by a lower-than-expected 0.2% during the month.

[whistle]

1. That makes 66 straight months of declines in real earnings for

...most Americans.

[papau]

2. Our media/GOP bemoans great economy Bush doesn't get credit for - :-(

:-(

[progree]

3. Real hourly earnings down 1.69% since July 2003

I don't follow real WEEKLY earnings because I haven't been able to find the link.

But here is the link for the parallel real HOURLY earnings. Includes both a table and graph. Very interesting to graph it since Jan 1973. Or since Jan 2001.

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=CES0500000049

Real hourly earnings have declined 1.69% since July 2003 when they peaked (actually the peak was a tiny bit higher in November 2003 according to current data but I've been sticking to a July 2003 benchmark that was the absolute peak before some very minor data revisions).

Anyway, when some rightie rightie right right right tells you how strong the economy is, ask him/her how come real wages for most Americans (80% of the workforce is covered by this data series -- production and non-supervisory workers) is down over 1.6%.

Need some more ammo about the "strong economy" e.g. a 9% drop in the number of employers offering health benefits in the past 5 years? See

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x21382

[ArmHayseed]

4. Link to weekly earnings

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ce

There you will find two reports, one seasonally adjusted (CES0500000051) and the other not (CEU0500000051). Both have adjusted for inflation and expressed in 1982 dollars.

[progree]

5. I'm maximally appreciative. Very interesting.

The below link has the graph and table for the Seasonally adjusted weekly earnings series.

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=CES0500000051

The above is especially interesting graphing from January 2001 to present (the web page has a graph and you can specify the time interval).

Another real interesting interval is January 1973 until present. Good Lord, $334 in Jan 1973 and $277 now! (Folks, just go there and look at these graphs!!)

(Caution: inflation adjustments are the old CPI ones .... won't go into this now. Though which inflation adjustment is used is not a big deal in shorter periods like 2001 and after.)

I don't know how long I've been looking for the real (inflation-adjusted) weekly earning series and they have apparently been there all along, easy to find for most people!

Thanks again,
Progree

[progree]

6. Yes, Bush can't catch a break!

You are so right that the mainstream media is full of poopy-cock when it comes to discussing the "strong" economy/

Here are some excerpts from my letters files where I go after these miscreant bozos.

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Subject: How Can A Collapsing Economy Be A Strong Economy?
To: [e-mail]

"Bush can't get a break. The economy is a case in point. For the most part, economists say it's strong, and Bush should be enjoying the credit". Excerpt from "Bush Pops His Bubble", Newsweek 5/1/06 p. 26.

Huh? what economists are these? How can an economy be strong when real (i.e. inflation adjusted) wages have been falling for most Americans for 2 3/4 years?. One measure of this is the average real earnings of production and non-supervisory workers -- a category that covers over 80% of the labor force. See:

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=CES0500000049

The poverty RATE has been going up every year since 2000 -- from 11.7% in 2000 to 12.7% in 2004 (almost the same level it was in 1970).

Real median household income has dropped for 5 years in a row, according to the Census Bureau. See:

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/h08.html

5 years ago, 69% of employers provided health insurance to their workers, now only 60% do so, a 9 percentage point drop in just 5 years (Per the PBS Newshour 4/5/06). And per the Economic Policy Institute, nearly 3.7 million fewer people had employer-provided health insurance in 2004 than in 2000, even though the labor force has grown.

Pensions are being watered down or eliminated at an increasing rate. Since most of those are cuts in FUTURE income, most of these cuts don't show up in today's economic statistics. But it will show up as ever-increasing cuts to personal income over the next decades.

The economy is "strong" in a GDP sense only because of unsustainable run-away federal spending and federal and private borrowing from overseas. The nation's current account deficit with the rest of the world is well over $2 billion PER DAY. The current account deficit for 2005 was not only a staggering record dollar amount ($805 Billion), but also a record percentage of the nation's economy (6.4% of GDP).

The federal government debt has grown by 42% between March 31, 2001 and December 31, 2005. Relative to the size of the economy, it has grown from 58% of GDP to 64% of GDP during this period. It now stands at over $8.3 Trillion. See:

http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/gdplev.xls

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/~www/opdpen.cgi

14% (one seventh) of the US budget now goes just to paying interest on this debt.

So please, spare us the right-wing clap-trap about how Bush deserves credit for a strong economy. Thankfully, most Americans are better informed than that.

###########################################################
Some more examples of mainstream press crapola about the strong economy
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Economy Posts Best Growth in 2 1/2 Years By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
Fri Apr 28, 6:54 PM ET

The above article paints a picture of a great fast-growing economy with inflation in check. The economy faced by the vast majority of Americans is far different.....

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"Data show economy firing on all cylinders" By Victoria Thieberger , Reuters 5/3/06

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Dear Newsweek,

I was surprised that Robert J. Samuelson characterized the American economy as a "strong economy" in his July 24, 2006 column.

...

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That's it for my data-dump of garbage about the strong economy ...

Next: tax cuts stimulate the economy (sigh)

How about greed is good?

Progree