The amount of money most workers want now to accept a job reached a record high this year, a sign that inflation is alive and well at least in the labor market.
According to the latest New York Federal Reserve employment survey released Monday, the average “reservation wage,” or the minimum acceptable salary offer to switch jobs, rose to $78,645 during the second quarter of 2023.
That’s an increase of about 8% from just a year ago and is the highest level ever in a data series that goes back to the beginning of 2014. Over the past three years, which entails the Covid era, the level has risen more than 22%. The number is significant in that wages increasingly have been recognized as a driving force in inflation. While goods prices have abated since pushing overall inflation to its highest level in more than 40 years in mid-2022, other factors continue to keep it well above the Fed’s targeted rate of 2%.
The New York Fed data is consistent with an Atlanta Fed tracker, which shows wages overall rising at a 6% annual rate but job switchers seeing 7% gains.
Employers have been trying to keep pace with the wage demands, pushing the average full-time offer up to $69,475, a 14% surge in the past year. The actual expected annual salary rose to $67,416, a gain of more than $7,000 from a year ago and also a new high.
Though there was a gap between the wage workers wanted and what was offered, satisfaction with compensation and upward mobility increased across the board.
With markets on edge over what the Fed’s next policy step will be, more signs of a tight labor market raise the likelihood that policymakers will keep interest rates higher for longer. At their July meeting, officials noted that wages “were still rising at rates above levels assessed to be consistent with the sustained achievement” of the 2% inflation goal, minutes from the meeting said.
Monday’s survey results also showed some other mixed patterns in the labor market.
Job seekers, or those who have looked for work in the previous four weeks, declined to 19.4% from 24.7% a year ago. That came as job openings fell by 738,000 to 9.58 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The likelihood of switching jobs fell, dropping to 10.6% from 11% a year ago, while expectations of being offered a new job also declined, to 18.7% from 21.1%.
So I’m supposed to tolerate one person who is unwell attacking someone who is contemplating suicide?
“Suck it up, kid, it could be worse” helps no one, it only makes the situation worse. All that person hears is that it can get worse.
I’ve been in this situation in my life, I know exactly how it is. You cannot think clearly, but that does not give you the go ahead to try and make someone else’s pain seem trivial compared to your own. If I heard what that guy said to the person above when I was at my lowest, the taste of a barrel would have probably been the last thing I experienced before I ended my own life.
I’m not disabled, I’ve experienced much worse. I’ve had my life utterly destroyed in front of my very eyes. Imagine watching everything you know come to an end and as much as you’ve wanted to trade your own life for theirs, you cannot. I’ve watched childhood friends that I’ve known for twenty years die from fentanyl overdose, I’ve watched one of my closest and most special family members get hit by a bus, all while I barely had a pot to piss in. Unlike that guy, I didn’t have family to bail my ass out of a shitty situation. Had to do it on my own. The very thing that saved my life, was a random guy online that did the very thing that I’m trying to at least attempt to provide to the other person. Thanks to that guy, my life didn’t end with a swiss roll filled with lead.
I would never have tried to lessen someone else’s pain in the situation of that person above the guy we are talking about. Yeah, it sucks that you got hit by some jackass because you were in a shitty position, guess what?
it could be worse…
How do you think that makes him feel? That did nothing for me, and it did sure as shit nothing for him except possibly make him seethe, tough luck dude. Sorry he is so bitter, but yep, could be worse couldn’t it? Like that’s going to matter if the other guy just decides to eat lead or meet pavement.