Inquiring minds are digging into the stunningly bad Quarter-Over-Quarter decline in wages and real wages across all sectors as noted in the Revised First Quarter BLS Productivity and Costs report.





Sector Nonfarm Business Business Manufacturing Durable Nondurable Productivity 0.5 2 3.5 3.6 3.9 Output 2.1 3.1 5.3 6.4 4.2 Hours 1.6 1.1 1.8 2.8 0.2 Hourly compensation -3.8 -3.1 -6.9 -8.1 -4.9 Real hourly compensation -5.2 -4.6 -8.3 -9.4 -6.4 Unit labor costs -4.3 -5 -10 -11.2 -8.5

Year-Over-Year numbers are still positive but the revised quarterly numbers shown above are an unmitigated disaster.The BLS notes "Unit labor costs in nonfarm businesses fell 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013, the combined effect of a 3.8 percent decrease in hourly compensation and the 0.5 percent increase in productivity. The decline in hourly compensation is the largest in the series, which begins in 1947."It's quite easy to explain why this is happening, and it was all too predictable as well. Obamacare and inane Fed policies are in play as noted yesterday in Fed Policies and Obama Programs Exacerbate Credit Crunch to Small Businesses The results are in today. The Fed and Obama are both engaging in counterproductive policies that discourage hiring, especially hiring of full-time employees.Of course Obama will respond by asking for a raise in minimum wage (giving further incentives to businesses to seek ways to get rid of employees), and the Fed will vow to keep interest rates low (enabling companies to borrow money for next to nothing to do just that).Mike "Mish" Shedlockhttp://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com