Taking inventory of the US labor markets is an important factor when measuring the pulse of the domestic economy. Unemployment statistics and wage growth are two ways many investors gauge the health of working Americans. So far in 2016, unemployment has remained around five percent through October despite much of the negative political rhetoric shared this fall. Meanwhile, wage growth continues to grind higher. Average wage growth has been positive and as of September, the three month moving average was 5.4% per the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In addition, the segment of the population that is experiencing zero wage growth is shrinking as well. In the summer of 2012, 17% of the population was experiencing no increase in pay. That number has declined to as low as 13.1% in June of 2016. In summary, the labor markets look positive as more people are employed, more of those employees are experiencing wage growth and wages are increasing at an accelerating steady pace.
The discussions and opinions in this market summary are for general information only, and are not intended to provide investment advice. While taken from sources deemed to be accurate, Ballentine Partners makes no representations about the accuracy of the information in the market summary or its appropriateness for any given situation. Past performance of the indices shown is not necessarily indicative of future results.