Coincident index suggests acceleration.
Figure 1: Wisconsin Nonfarm Payroll Employment (dark blue), Philadelphia Fed early benchmark measure of NFP (pink), Civilian Employment (tan), real wages and salaries, deflated by national chained CPI (sky blue), GDP (red), coincident index (green), all in logs 2021M11=0. Source: BLS, BEA, Philadelphia Fed [1], [2], and author’s calculations.
Wisconsin is doing well. I’m sure the MAGA-right-wing Ron “look what I found on this Russian laptop” Johnson-type business owners have something to complain about – mainly that they have to pay workers too much: https://econbrowser.com/archives/2024/02/wisconsin-manufacturers-and-commerce-optimism-is-falling
Meanwhile, $6.3 billion in Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding is coming to Wisconsin – to fix roads, bridges, water systems, rural high speed internet (badly needed), and public transit https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Wisconsin-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Including a new Blatnik Bridge between Superior and Duluth to improve supply chain/commerce between Minn and WI https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/transportation-officials-will-take-vessel-collisions-into-consideration-in-designing-new-blatnik-bridge/ar-BB1kAILS
A different view of how well Wisconsin is doing…Working Wisconsin: ” In nominal terms, the 2022 wage median was higher than the 2021 median, but inflation rose more rapidly than wages, leaving workers behind. Taking inflation into account, Wisconsin’s 2022 median wage fell back to its 2019 level at $22.02 per hour. In contrast, the 2021 median wage was $23.27, in 2022 dollars. Three years of wage growth were erased.” In addition, in 2022 Wisconsin fell below the national median wage of $22.88. https://workingwi.org/state-of-working-wisconsin-2023/wages/
It will be interesting to see how Wisconsin workers fared in 2023, an early indicator of workers’ political leanings. Unfortunately, the data won’t be available for months.
Nonetheless it’s good to see that someone at UW-Madison cares about Wisconsin workers and not just about economic aggregates and interest rates. I wonder if the folks at the La Follette School of Public Affairs ever walk 3 minutes down Observatory Drive to meet with the High Road Strategy Center to discuss public policy. High Road certainly seems to focus on critical economic policy issues being treated with benign neglect by the folks at La Follette.
Interestingly enough–if memory serves me right–High Road is located in the building that used to house the economics department.
Are you really in Wisconsin? Oh that’s right – you came for the Pabst beer and you must have downed an entire case if you really think UW-Madison never does labor economics or that Dr. Chinn has never talked about real wages in his state.
Oh no – little Jonny boy just has to launch yet another pointless, stupid, and dishonest smear at real economists. It is all little Jonny knows how to do besides getting drunk on cheap beer.
I was going to take the time to show how effing stupid your latest disgusting rant was but our host has already done so taking your trash to the wood shed (Arrogance of Ignorance post). You seriously owe him an apology but we know you are not man enough to admit where your obnoxious trash was dead wrong.
Don’t be dissing on Pabst now. Some lines we just don’t cross.
I get the Pabst “extra” in the black and blue cans every 10 days or so because it has 1.5% more alcohol than regular Pabst (I share some with my cool Hispanic neighbor who I would call by his name but I want to stay anonymous here). But don’t be dissing on Pabst now. You know I would “go the the wall” for some guy when I share beer with them I could have just as well drank myself. He’s that guy you call when your Church friends are apparently too good to help you. Yeah, I said that on Easter.
From Jonny boy’s own link which of course little Jonny boy did not read carefully.
“Since 1979, productivity is up more than 62 percent, but workers hourly pay is up just 18 percent.”
It is a well known fact that real compensation has not risen as much as productivity. Tons of papers have noted this even if it seems little Jonny boy has not read one of them.
But wait – Jonny boy wants us to believe real compensation is down. Yea – Jonny boy lies again.
Something else liar Jonny boy failed to mention. This discussion is through 2022. Of course we have documented here many times that real wages rose in 2023. But Jonny boy omits that as Jonny boy’s sole purpose in life is pointless lies.