Fed Study: Wage growth an “illusion” that’s “almost entirely attributable” to low-wage job losses
“The median usual weekly earnings measure that we focus on here is not an exception. Other measures of wage growth — like average hourly earnings and compensation per hour — show similar spikes,” Daly said, but in this case the growth “primarily reflects the departure of low-wage workers who have been laid off due to coronavirus… and are no longer counted in the aggregate wage series.”
Low-wage workers have been disproportionately affected by pandemic job losses. The number of full-time job losses since March are nearly twice as high as the number during the Great Recession, according to the study, with 17% of the full-time labor force losing their jobs since the pandemic began. Roughly half of these workers are not classified as unemployed because they are not actively searching for a new job.
