Dive Brief:
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The U.S. government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the smallest wage gains on record Friday, startling many who expected healthier gains.
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But among the workers faring best are blue-collar workers, what some economists refer to as workers in the “real economy.”
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That could mean that wage disparities, which have plagued the U.S. and this latest recovery and which have been blamed for a “retail funk,” could be beginning to close.
Dive Insight:
Friday saw yet another report that, even in an improving economy, numbers reflect some flaws in the recovery. This time, it was the surprising and disappointing news that wages saw the smallest improvement ever on record.
But, Business Insider reports, a deeper dive shows that blue collar workers — a bedrock of the middle class and a key segment of retail’s customer base — are actually faring better. That means something to the macro-economists at the Federal Reserve and elsewhere who are in charge of fiddling with interest rates and other key knobs and levers at their disposal.
For retail, it’s a sign that at some point the extreme price sensitivities of the non-luxury consumer may eventually get a bit less touchy, leaving room for more differentiation on value and quality.
“The US economy is growing, not spectacularly, but it is growing, and with a few more months of solid job growth, the Fed will probably be compelled to act, because behind some noisy headlines, things are still getting better for regular Americans,” writes Myles Udland at Business Insider.