Here We Go - Again

Gawd, every damned month, it's the same bullshit. This time, Bloomberg (07.07.06):

"The U.S. economy added fewer jobs in June than economists forecast, reducing the urgency for further Federal Reserve interest-rate increases even as wages rose the most in five years." U.S. Economy: Job Growth Falls Short of Forecasts

Wages rose the most in five years? Oh really. Bloomberg says hourly earnings "rose 3.9 percent from a year ago" (from $16.07 to $16.70), which is true, if you don't adjust for inflation. But what happens if you do? Ahhhh!! A different picture entirely. Because the BLS doesn't post its inflation-adjusted wage for several weeks, we'll use last month's numbers to make the point. In May, 2006, unadjusted hourly earnings rose 3.7 percent from a year ago, from $16.03 to $16.62. Yay! Does that mean we're saved? Well, not really. If you do adjust, hourly earnings declined 0.61 percent from a year ago, from $8.20 to $8.15.