Due to the worsening inflation crisis, the real wages of American workers continued to fall during the month of May, according to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
During May 2022, inflation hit the highest level since December 1981 as prices rose 1% from the previous month and 8.6% from the year before, according to a separate report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The 8.6% increase in prices over the last year resulted in a dramatic decrease in the real wages of Americans. The Bureau of Labor Statistics wrote, “Real average hourly earnings decreased 3.0 percent, seasonally adjusted, from May 2021 to May 2022. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 3.9-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.”
Additionally, the real average weekly earnings of American workers decreased 0.7% from April to May.
The two reports on the American economy revealed much worse numbers that economists had predicted. As noted by CNBC, the “consumer price index, a wide-ranging measure of goods and services prices, increased even more than the 8.3% Dow Jones estimate.”
“It’s hard to look at May’s inflation data and not be disappointed,” said Morning Consult’s chief economist John Leer, according to CNBC. “We’re just not yet seeing any signs that we’re in the clear.”
“Obviously, nothing is good in this report,” said Julian Brigden, president of the global macroeconomic research firm MI2 Partners. “There is nothing in there that’s going to give the Fed any cheer. … I struggle to see how the Fed can back off.”
