Cenk Yildiran

The Real Weekly Earnings series is a coincident indicator of economic growth, and it measures the usual weekly earnings of wage and salary workers. Therefore, it does not include self-employed persons.

It gives clues about the current situation of an economy because it represents the income level of the individuals. An increasing trend in Real Earnings may indicate the economy is growing. More income means more consumption and, in turn, more production, bringing economic growth.

The chart below represents the Median Usual Weekly Real Earnings from January 1979 to January 2023. The spike in April 2020 illustrated the effect of Covid when stimulus checks were provided to the individuals. After that time on, however, inflation has eaten the real wages.

Let’s zoom in on the last year: The chart below represents the Median Usual Weekly Real Earnings from January 2022 to January 2023. After bottoming in the second quarter of 2022, the indicator improves.