wages

Advertised wages growth is at/near pre-COVID levels in the US & EA, while still-high growth in AUS & NZ should improve this year.

Wages growth has slowed a lot from its COVID peak, but the improvement looks to have broadly stalled recently.

The AWOTE and AWE measures of wages grew strongly at the end of last year.

US employment growth was strong, unemployment held steady and wages growth accelerated in January

Spending was held down by direct government cost-of-living subsidies in Q3, while unit labour costs continue to grow strongly.

Wages growth has slowed, but was the fastest in trend terms since 2000.

Strong unit labour costs risk delaying the return of inflation to the 2-3% target band

Another measure of wages shows labour costs are growing strongly.

Workers securing pay rises are achieving large increases.

The resilience of wages growth likely reinforces the Fed's concern that it may take longer for core inflation to return to the 2% target.