World-Watching: Atlanta Federal Reserve Wage Growth Tracker Was 6.1 Percent in January

[from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta]

The Atlanta Fed’s Wage Growth Tracker was 6.1 percent in January, the same as in December. For people who changed jobs, the Tracker in January was 7.3 percent, compared to 7.7 percent in December. For those not changing jobs, the Tracker was 5.4 percent, compared to the 5.3 percent reading in December.

The Atlanta Fed’s Wage Growth Tracker is a measure of the nominal wage growth of individuals. It is constructed using microdata from the Current Population Survey (CPS), and is the median percent change in the hourly wage of individuals observed 12 months apart. This measure is based on methodology developed by colleagues at the San Francisco Fed.

The Wage Growth Tracker is updated once the Atlanta Fed’s CPS dataset is constructed (see the “Explore the Data” tab on that page). This is usually by the second Friday of the month. The exact timing depends on when the Bureau of the Census publishes the microdata from the CPS.

Stay informed of all Wage Growth Tracker updates by subscribing to the Atlanta Fed’s mailing listsubscribing to their RSS feeddownloading their EconomyNow app, or following the Atlanta Fed on Twitter. You can also build your own cuts of Wage Growth Tracker data using the CPS Data Application from CADRE or alternatively from here. Look for instructions and program files in the “Explore the Data” tab on the Wage Growth Tracker.