Fox News reports that for January 2022, wages rose only 4.4% while inflation rose at 6.5% effectively, meaning it is like you took a 2.1% pay cut. Not good.
Food prices continue to rise–as does nearly every category as evidenced in this BLS chart.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2023/consumer-price-index-2022-in-review.htm
(Chicago, IL) — Americans are racking up a record amount of credit card debt. A new report from TransUnion puts the total at 930-billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2022. That’s an 18-and-a-half percent jump from the prior year. The average credit card balance rose to just over 58-hundred dollars as consumers increasingly rely on plastic to pay for food and rent.
Jobless Claims Down For Now As Job Cuts Rise
(Washington, DC) — The number of jobless claims is down even as the number of job cuts surged in January. The latest numbers from the Labor Department show initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by three-thousand for the week that ended January 28th. In contrast, data from Challenger, Gray and Christmas show job cuts last month hit the highest number since September 2020. U.S. employers slashed nearly 103-thousand jobs in January, with 41-percent of the workforce reduction coming in the technology sector. Challenger’s Senior Vice President Andrew Challenger said the job market is now on the other side of the hiring frenzy of the pandemic years and companies are preparing for an economic slowdown.