The economic news we aren’t talking about

Michael Madowitz argues that the Federal Reserve should wait to see what macroeconomic trends develop under the new administration before deciding on an inflation target.

Last week’s employment report brought more mixed signals for economy watchers. The March, April, and May employment numbers have been up and down, while the weak estimate for first-quarter GDP data disappointed.

In May, the economy added 138,000 jobs — a modest increase that fell short even of conservative estimates — with headline unemployment ticking down to 4.3%. Hourly wage growth held steady at 2.5% over the last year, and real wage growth looks mild right now, though that’s mostly due to the effect of oil prices over the last year. Overall consumer price index (CPI) growth is likely to slow to line up with core CPI over the next few months, leading to growing real wages.

The above excerpt was originally published in MarketWatch. Click here to view the full article.

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