U.S. Wages Suffer Biggest Drop in Eight Years

Friday’s jobs report brought little comfort to American workers, as wages posted their biggest drop in eight years.

According to the Labor Department report, hourly wages fell 5 cents (0.2 percent) to $24.57.

“On the year, average hourly earnings have risen just 1.7 percent, barely enough to keep pace with inflation,” reported CNBC. “The encouraging 0.4 percent increase in wages reported in November got revised back down to 0.2 percent.”

Reuters called the softness in wages “striking.”

The Obama administration did its best to tout the report’s 5.6 percent jobless rate as being at a six-and-a-half year low. However, the decline was due to the record 92,898,000 Americans who have left the U.S. workforce.

“The simple fact is we cannot consider an employment report a success, no matter how healthy the headline may be, if wage data does not begin to accelerate,” BTIG brokerage strategist Dan Greenhaus told the Wall Street Journal.