Average hourly earnings were up a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in March, following February’s relatively weak 0.1% rise. In the previous six months, by contrast, monthly wage gains averaged 0.5%.
Drivers are snatching up available vehicles as soon as they hit the lot. In the first quarter, 41% of all new vehicles were sold within the first week of sitting on a dealer lot, compared with 20% in the first quarter of 2021.
About 80% of people subject to mandatory retirement account distributions withdraw more than the required minimum because they need the money.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank was prepared to raise interest rates in half-percentage-point steps and high enough to deliberately slow the economy if it concluded such steps were warranted to bring down inflation.
The Federal Reserve raises interest rates by a quarter point, the first increase since 2018, and signals plans to lift them steadily this year to lower inflation.
The benchmark S&P 500 notched a total return, including price gains and dividends, of 28.7% last year. That was a stronger showing than that of 85% of U.S. large-cap stock-picking mutual funds. 2021 was the 12th consecutive year in which the majority of actively managed funds of large-cap stocks underperformed the S&P 500.
Last year, workers quit their jobs at the highest rate on records back to 2000, suggesting that Americans were willing to leave employment in search of better wages or more desirable perks, including remote work.
Employers added 678,000 workers to their payrolls in February, the biggest gain in seven months. The jobless rate fell to 3.8% from 4.0% a month earlier, edging closer to the 50-year low of 3.5% hit just before the pandemic.
