Notable weakness in today's #jobs report for this morning. Payroll employment grew by 29,000 while downward revisions to both July and August totaled 60,000. July is now recording losses. The job growth in September (29,000) is slower than the prior 12 months (45,000). #EconSky

"Prioritizing high-pressure labor markets—those identified by extended periods of low unemployment—is key to providing lower- and middle-wage workers the leverage to bid up their wages."

My @epi.org colleagues @elisegould.bsky.social & Hilary Wething put together a banger of a chartbook on wage suppression--the single biggest cause of the affordability crisis. Some of the charts are among EPI's greatest hits & some are new (at least to me). www.epi.org/publication/...

Wage suppression in 10 charts

Wages for typical workers lag far behind productivity growth. It hasn't always been this way and does not have to be this way. These 10 charts outline the historical context of workers’ wage trajector...

epi.org

Stoked for the release of the 2025 Income, Poverty and Health Insurance estimates! But of course, I'd be remiss to not mention that we still don't know when the 2025 ACS estimates will be released-- this is a problem! (1/x)

Trump's mass deportations were sold as a major jobs program, but they're still failing to help U.S.-born workers

Today's #jobs data can be considered a solid bounce back to relative weakness in June and July. Job growth has averaged 71k over the last 3 months. Weaker numbers for leisure and hospitality and unusual July losses in local government education employment seems to have resolved in August. #econsky

🌟 NEW 🌟 First-of-its-kind analysis from @cmcnich.bsky.social, @jensherer.bsky.social, and @benzipperer.org measures how expanding union membership would boost wages, lower inequality, and benefit communities and democracy. A teaser of what that would mean for workers 🧵 1/

The case for tripling union membership: How rebuilding union power would strengthen workers, the economy, and our democracy

Foreword Imagine union membership tripling in the United States. It may sound radical—if you’ve forgotten history. In fact, more than 1 in 3 private-sector workers belonged to a union in the 1950s. Th...

epi.org

This week marks the one year anniversary of OBBBA-- reflecting on the harms this legislation will inflict, I thought it would be a good reminder to write about how Medicaid and SNAP cuts won't just harm ABAWDs, they will harm children, public schools and local economies www.epi.org/blog/medicai...

Trump's war has wiped out an entire year and a half of wage growth

Nice piece from @epi.org @kdoc-writes.bsky.social on how government can earn the public's trust through progressive taxes-- this table stuck with me www.epi.org/blog/raising...

Really interesting #JobsDay piece by @saraestep.bsky.social last week noting that women make up a majority of the employed. It reminded me about the growing prevalence of healthcare jobs & ensuring the jobs disproportionately held by women pay well. www.epi.org/publication/...

Women have made up the majority of nonfarm employed since February this year and since the pandemic mothers have been driving LFPR trends. Check out @kennedyandara.bsky.social and my new analysis: www.americanprogress.org/article/wome...

Women Workers Are a Lifeline for the Economy

As Mother’s Day approaches, April jobs data highlight that women have been a bright spot in a volatile labor market, and underneath that trend are working mothers’ labor force participation rates.

americanprogress.org

Setting aside the significant losses in the public sector—the mass federal layoffs—private sector employment grew by 717k since January 2025. If it hadn't been for the sizeable gains in health care and social assistance (+848k), the private sector would have shrunk by 131k since Trump took office.

Bad news for US workers: with nominal wage growth slowing and oil prices rising, real wages all but guaranteed to decline.

Elise Gould@elisegould.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Nominal wage growth continued to slow in April. Over the last three months, wages have growth only 2.8% (annualized). The one-month change was even slower (1.9%). As inflation rises, real wages fall as workers and their families find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. #EconSky #NumbersDay

share of job leavers among unemployed falls to 11.3%, very low for a 4.3% unemployment rate

Today's jobs report came in stronger than expected as payrolls increased by 115,000 in April. As a result, average monthly growth the last three months was 48,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held steady as both labor force participation and the employment level dropped slightly. #NumbersDay #EconSKy

This is a real problem which should concern many of you, if you put any weight on inequality. There are issues around measuring the labor share. One is the role of depreciation. The net-of-depreication labor share is higher. But it also shows sharp decline post 2000.

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“.. Labor's share of output (nonfarm business) fell to 54.1% in the first quarter, the lowest since records begin going back to 1947.” Said Krishna Guha: “Not so good news for society and our politics.” (via WSJ/Greg Ip)

If you are not in @epi.org AI webinar right now, you are really missing out -- starting now until 2pm us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

The spending cutbacks spurred by higher prices unemployment will rise and labor market will cool further, dampening nominal wage growth and making real declines even worse. This war is obviously a disaster across the board, but will have direct and terrible effects on affordability. 3

Real wage growth in 2025 was already negative for lowest-wage workers, and was below 1.5% for just about everybody. A price shock of 1.5% (what's likely baked in based on oil price per barrel increases so far) means 2026 is looking like a year of negative real wage growth for most workers. 2

Price effects of the Iran conflict already showing up in March data. For the month, prices up a lot and real earnings are down. And it almost surely gets worse from here. 1

We don't have the inflation data yet to show real wage changes in March, but slowing nominal wage growth coupled with rising prices from the Iran war almost surely means real wages will suffer, contributing to worsening affordability. #EconSky

Come work at @epi.org! We're hiring a Development Director

The gender wage gap grew when Wisconsin let school districts negotiate pay individually with teachers instead of following union pay schedules based on seniority and credentials. Men's pay rose while women's pay fell.

Eugene Freedman@eugenefreedman.bsky.social · 7mo ago

It's important to note that most union jobs pay people based on seniority, which overcomes biases that lead to (white) men earning more for identical qualifications.

Today is #EqualPayDay, but there's no cause for celebration. This is how far into 2026 women would have to work on top of the hours they worked in 2025 simply to match what men were paid in 2025. Emma Cohn and I detail changes in the pay gap and what we can do about it. www.epi.org/blog/the-gen...

The gender pay gap widened slightly in 2025: How Trump’s first year in office hurt women and what states can do to fix it

Key takeaways: The persistent gender wage gap widened slightly in 2025; women were paid 18.6% less than men on average after controlling for race and ethnicity, education, age, marital status, and sta...

epi.org

Manufacturing jobs fell again, down 12,000 between January and February 2026. Since January 2025, the manufacturing sector has lost 100,000 jobs. I repeat: The manufacturing sector lost 100k jobs since Trump took office. #EconSky #NumbersDay

Today's jobs report was much weaker than expected. Payroll jobs fell 92k in Feb, and revisions to Dec data show a loss of 17k jobs. Average job growth over the last 3 months now under 6k. Household survey population controls indicate a significant drop in the labor force. #NumbersDay #EconSky

Latest deportation data: ICE is on course to deport more than 400 thousand people in 2025. The current deportation rate is about half of Trump's goal (1 million annual deportations).

NEWS: By vaccinating babies at birth, the U.S. nearly eradicated hepatitis-B in children. Kennedy's vaccine advisory panel is expected this week to recommend delaying the shot, opening a window for kids to be infected. Exclusive by @jackie-fortier.bsky.social kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Expected To Recommend Delaying Hepatitis B Shot for Children - KFF Health News

A federal vaccine panel, recently reshaped by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is expected to vote on delaying the hepatitis B shot for newborns. Pediatricians warn that coul...

kffhealthnews.org

While changes at the median or 10th percentile were not statistically significant between 2023 and 2024, income grew 1.3% and 2.2% in real terms at the middle and bottom, respectively. However, inequality did rise because the top grew even faster (4.2% at the 90th percentile). #EconSky #NumbersDay