Series
Single figures from the labor data, taken apart.
62 pieces
Total compensation cost rose 3.3% over the year to June. Wages rose 3.1%, benefits 3.8%. The gap has widened for three straight quarters, and the fastest growing part of the package is the part employees never see.
Sixteen readings, a straight line, and no acceleration. The more interesting number is what businesses say they expect six months from now, because for the first time it is lower than what they just delivered.
Everyone's blaming AI for the freeze. The data says it's cyclical, and the earliest cyclical tell just flipped.
May payrolls doubled the forecast — but temp help, the labor market's leading indicator, kept shrinking. The two signals point opposite ways.
Nominal wages look healthy. Real purchasing power just turned negative for the second month in a row though.
Employer confidence strengthened to a cycle high in the U.S. even as hiring outlooks weakened in 33 of 42 countries. The divergence matters more than the headline number.
Leisure, hospitality, and local government added 125,000 of May's 172,000 jobs. The sectors most managers compete in added almost nothing.
U.S. employers announced fewer layoffs in April than a year ago. They also announced far fewer hires. The second number matters more.
The layer of your organization that drives 70% of team engagement variance is now barely more engaged than the people it manages.
The gap between switcher and stayer pay shrank to 1.9 percentage points at the start of the year — the smallest since 2020. But new-hire pay just thawed for the first time in 18 months.
Tech, telecom, and media employment is down 11.0% from its peak — and it kept dropping in April. The talent pool you're hiring from is bigger than your salary bands assume.
Labor's share of nonfarm output fell to a record-low 54.1% as AI-driven productivity gains flowed to capital. What it signals for hiring, retention, and comp budgets.
