Gains in Wages Expected to Give Economy a Lift

[durutti]

Wage increases for employees at almost all income levels are giving important and unexpected support to the nation's economy. If the gains continue, they offer hope that the rapid economic expansion of recent months could prove more durable than other spurts of growth over the last two years.

Forecasters expect the Commerce Department (news - web sites) to say in its quarterly report on Thursday that the economy grew about 6 percent in the three-month period ending in September, which would be the fastest pace since 1999. Most of that growth stemmed from a sharp rise in consumer spending, driven largely by a continuing boom in mortgage refinancing and checks that were mailed out as part of the recent tax cut.

With those forces receding and business spending still slack, the economy will depend increasingly on regular paychecks, analysts say. Hourly wages have already surprised most economists by growing more quickly than inflation since 2001 in spite of the worst decline in employment in 20 years.

[On the Road]

1. That IS a Surprise

and it's one thing Bush can't take credit for.

[durutti]

2. Why Not?

I'm not challenging that conclusion. I'm just interested in what you have to say about it.

[Lindacooks]

3. Not seeing that in my world

Salaried jobs are increasingly scarce, and most don't pay well at all. I don't know which world those economists are in, but that ain't the way it is in middle income America.

[okieinpain]

16. hey I got a decent raise at my job, but I'm doing three different

jobs now. I was hired as a pc tech, but now I have to work on the printers, and I mean service them, you know order parts and replace them. I'm also now tracing down phone line problems, instead of calling in a company to take care of those things, I'm doing them now, and thats for a company that's in 3 different buildings.

[Spazito]

4. Link please

*

[durutti]

14. Oops

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nyt/20031027/ts_nyt/gainsinwagesexpectedtogiveeconomyalift

[ninkasi]

5. What we need...

is to improve the job situation. There are also more families living in poverty than ever before, thanks to Whistleass and his greedy friends. For many families, it's going to be a long, hard climb to get back to where they were when Clinton was in office.

[RuB]

6. Lay off alot of the workforce, expect the same output from those you keep

pay em a little more and declare a victory over the country's economic woes. Sounds like your trying to Bush me?

[papau]

7. This is an increase in per hour pay rates- it is not increase in take home

pay, necessarily.

Indeed the article in the NYT implies that take home has not risen the 2% that the average hourly wage has risen.

Indeed the last clean stat from the gov was under Clinton - anything released under Bush requires an investigation to find where is the spin.

In the old days those that told only partial truths were called liars - but our not controlled by the right wing GOP US media call them sources in this Bush universe.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

8. You take away x in benefits to increase a salary by x-y and you

can say that wages have increased while the employee takes less home.

Okay....

(btw, any link?)

[Liberal Veteran]

9. Wages went up 2% while employee share of Health insurance...

....went through the roof in many companies. That sorta makes this report meaningless.

[Spazito]

10. This is also in the report....

Fed officials have signaled that they will keep short-term rates at just 1 percent and repeat their cautious economic outlook because they remain worried about the slow pace of job growth and the risk of a deflationary price spiral.

Laurence H. Meyer, an economist and a former Fed governor, estimates that the combination of tax cuts and bigger government spending, mostly for the military, essentially doubled the pace of economic growth in the third quarter, to 6 percent from 3 percent. But Mr. Meyer said that that effect is already wearing off and that the fiscal policy will actually become a drag on growth by the end of next year.

Edited to add the "missing" link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/27/business/27WAGE.html

[Snellius]

11. More of Bill Keller's "fair and balanced" crap

Behind this smiley face headline is really some very discouraging news. As the graph in the print version attests, raw incomes are continuing to plummet. The Times is only able to make this preposterously optimistic prediction by factoring in the tax cuts and lower mortage rates. BUT the tax cuts are largely a one-time hit for most taxpayers and, as Secretary of Treasury let slip last week, interest rates are likely to rise further - due largely and ironically to those very tax cuts and the record deficits they help create. Add to this rising heating and health costs and the available spending left for most families is deteriorating.

[Neutrino]

12. Wage gains---but fewer hours

I read the report. Another manipulative deceptive utterance from
our manipulative and deceptive Administration.

[LiberalBushFan]

13. fastest gains since 1999?

Irrevelancy of wage figure alone aside, fastest gains since 1999 means less than or equal to gains in 1999, and greater than anytime during the Bush admin so far... not saying much. Weak argument on two major fronts.

[okieinpain]

15. you can't give all the executives million dollar raises, add that

to the wages average, and expect it to help the economy, I mean how many cars can they buy.