US – Wage growth has been stuck at about 2 per cent a year

Wage growth in the US has been stuck at about 2 per cent a year, just about keeping up with inflation but well below the levels of up to 3.5 per cent that productivity would suggest. The quarterly Employment Cost index, another widely used measure of wages, has also seen consistently sluggish readings over the past year, cementing the belief that relatively stagnant real wages remain one of the big clouds still lingering over America’s economic recovery.

But from the Federal Reserve to the White House to Wall Street, there is a growing debate about when – or if – that might change as job growth accelerates across the US economy.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  US jobs: Slim pickings – FT.com.

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