Economic Update

US pay growth is pathetic and expected to stay that way

American paychecks continue to look skimpy, according to the latest report on incomes and spending, which the US Commerce Department just shoved out the door....

Adjusted for inflation, American wage growth still looks pretty weak. In March it clocked in at 1.9%. That’s better than the decreases seen during the worst of the recession and its aftermath. But it sure ain’t great. During the housing boom years, wage growth spent plenty of time above 3.5%. And during the 1990s, it was ridiculous, topping out above 8% in June of 1998.

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 Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-pay-growth-pathetic-expected-141515048.html

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NYT: As Jobs Lag, Fed ... Unlikely to Do More

The Federal Reserve is making modest progress in its push to reduce the unemployment rate. But that is not the jobs goal Congress actually established for the Fed. The central bank is supposed to be maximizing employment. And on that front, it is not making progress.

 The share of American adults with jobs has hovered around 58.5 percent for more than three years, roughly five percentage points below its prerecession peak.

Job creation has merely kept pace with population growth. The unemployment rate, now 7.6 percent, has fallen mostly because people stopped looking for work.
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Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/business/economy/fed-unlikely-to-expand-asset-purchases

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CNBC: the Jobs Outlook Just Got a Whole Lot Worse

Weak corporate top-line growth is likely to spell an equally troubled bottom line for the 11.7 million unemployed....

 "The loss of momentum in the U.S. economy has been palpable, but what looks to be a soft patch in yet another 2 percent year for real economic growth now has the potential to morph into something more painful," RBC Capital Markets economists Tom Porcelli and Jacob Oubina said in a report.

In such an environment, companies unable to expand their top lines likely will focus on cutting expenses to achieve profits.

"What is important to consider on the back of these results is that employment tends to become the victim of a disappointing revenue backdrop," RBC said. "In other words, headcount tends to become the focus in any effort to extract savings and boost bottom line results."
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Link:http://www.cnbc.com/id/100684601