Average Hourly Earnings Rose 2.9 Percent Year-Over-Year

Key Points:

  • Average hourly earnings rose 2.9 percent in December for private sector employees.
  • Wage growth has been at or above 2.9 percent for 17 consecutive months.

Economist Corner:

A tight labor market combined with positive business sentiment continues to put upward pressure on wages. This is good news for future consumption, a key driver of the U.S. economy. As theory would predict, the hot labor market is disproportionately benefiting low-skilled workers, with gains for production or nonsupervisory workers outpacing the overall total, and exceeding 3 percentage points on a year-ago basis for the 17th straight month.