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Kalispell,
Montana 59901 406-756-3787
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Statistics
means never having to say your certain, and that was certainly true last
week.
The
employment report, which was released on Friday, was a bit short on jobs.
Analysts had predicted employers would add about 162,000 new jobs during May,
according to CNBC.
Instead, a paltry 38,000 jobs added to payrolls.
The United
States Department of Labor focused on the fact
the United States has experienced 75 consecutive months of private-sector
jobs growth, as well as the significant decline in unemployment. The
unemployment rate fell from 5.0 percent to 4.7 percent - but it was largely
attributed to Americans leaving the labor force.
United
States Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez commented, "At this point in a
recovery, we expect to see trade-offs between job growth and strong wage
growth. Earnings growth in May was encouraging. So far this year, average
hourly earnings for private employees have increased 3.2 percent at an annual
rate."
The
anemic employment report triggered concern that U.S. economic recovery may be
slowing. That, in turn, means the Federal Reserve may not implement measures
designed to push interest rates higher during its June meeting. CNBC
reported the probability of a Fed rate hike dropped from 21 percent to 4
percent after the employment report.
U.S.
markets were nonplussed. Barron's
reported the Standard & Poor's 500 Index finished the week flat. The Dow
Jones Industrial Index moved slightly lower, and the NASDAQ showed a slight
gain.
What
Are Your Wages Worth?
We've written about The
Economist's Big Mac Index, which is a lighthearted
way to gauge whether countries' currencies are at the correct levels - just
compare the price of a hamburger in each country. At the start of the year,
you could buy a Big Mac pretty cheaply in Russia ($1.53), Hong Kong ($2.48),
or Taiwan ($2.08).
There are differences in how much things cost from state-to-state, too. Pew Research Center used federal wage data to determine which regions of the United States had the lowest and highest wages after adjusting for differences in cost-of-living:
"As
we've noted before, prices for everything from housing to groceries vary
widely from place to place, with the result being that a given income can
mean very different things in New York, New Orleans, or New Bern, North
Carolina. To get a handle on those variations, one can use the "regional
price parities," or RPPs, developed by the federal Bureau of Economic
Analysis. The RPPs measure local price levels in each of the nation's 381
metropolitan statistical areas, as well as the nonmetropolitan portions of
states, relative to the overall national price level."
The
highest weekly wages for 3rd Quarter 2015, after adjusting for
cost-of-living, were found in: 1) San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California,
2) California-Lexington Park, Maryland, 3) San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward,
California, and 4) Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington.
The lowest wages, after adjustment, were paid in: 1) Yakima, Washington, 2) Wenatchee, Washington, 3) Logan, Utah-Idaho, and 4) Grants Pass, Oregon.
Weekly
Focus - Think About It
"The
best fishermen I know try not to make the same mistakes over and over again;
instead they strive to make new and interesting mistakes and to remember what
they learned from them."
--John Gierach,
American author (and fisherman)
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