Oh yes, we have no wage gains, no wage gains today...

By Fester

Good news is that the economy lost fewer jobs last month than feared, or at least few jobs before initial and final revisions.  Bad news is that workers are making less real money today than they did last year.

Average hourly earnings for jobholders rose to $17.88 in April, a tiny 0.1 percent rise from the previous month. That was less than the 0.3 percent rise economists were forecasting. Over the last 12 months, wages have grown by 3.4 percent.

The Treasury Department is calculating that inflation grew at 4.84% for the past twelve months.  So the  real purchasing power of wages has decreased by roughly 1.4% in the same time frame.

The earnings rate for Series I Savings Bonds is a combination of a fixed rate, which applies for the life of the bond, and the semiannual inflation rate. The 4.84% earnings rate for I bonds bought from May through October 2008 will apply for their first six months after issue. The earnings rate combines a 0.00% fixed rate of return with the 4.84% annualized rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U). The fixed rate applies for the 30-year life of I bonds purchased during this six-month period. [h/t the Big Picture]

And remember, hard to avoid expenses are the ones that have increased the fastest, so discretionary spending is severely impacted.... not a fun situation to be in.