A Quick Breakdown of the New Inflation Number Everyone’s Talking About
The annualized inflation rate is at its highest level in nearly 40 years, according to data released Friday by the Department of Labor.
SO WHAT
Americans, and especially blue-collar workers, are already concerned about wages and the spiking costs of goods. These numbers aren’t likely to help.
THE NUMBERS
Consumer prices rose 6.8% last month compared to the same time last year, the highest such increase since June 1982, when annual inflation reached 7.1%.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Americans have been feeling the economic squeeze.
- The top kitchen-table worries for Americans are everyday bills and inflation, according to a Monmouth University poll released Wednesday.
ZOOM OUT
The Consumer Price Index – and not the jobs report – has become the data drop the U.S. government pays the most attention to.
- “When I was at CEA, we would have an all-out mobilization around jobs day but barely noticed when the CPI came out. Now, it is almost the reverse,” Jason Furman, who served as a chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, told Axios.