Inflation rose by 8.5% during July. | Jp Valery/Unsplash
Inflation rose by 8.5% during July. | Jp Valery/Unsplash
Prices of necessities continue to rise while the national year-over-year average wage earnings are headed in the opposite direction.
Inflation rose by 8.5% during July – marginally down from a month ago. This sparked further erosion in the average household's finances across the state of Wisconsin.
"It's a sign of how far and fast inflation has risen this year that an increase in prices of 8.5% in July on an annual basis triggered a market rally," the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Editorial Board said recently. "That's down from 9.1% a month ago, and the trend is in the right direction, but one month's respite is far from the end of this punishing inflation bout."
Zippia.com reported that wage inflation was down by 3.6% in July. Wisconsin's average household income has seen a $3,295 year-over-year loss, dropping the state’s current average household income to $88,243 a year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased by 2.7%, seasonally adjusted, from July 2021 to July 2022. The change in real average hourly earnings, combined with a decrease of 0.6% in the average work week, resulted in a 3.6% decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.
BLS released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the 12 months ending in July 2022 on Wednesday. The data showed an 8.5% all-items annual increase, which represents a 0.6% drop from the previous month. Some of the largest triggers were increases in the indexes for food, shelter, and electricity.
President Joe Biden recently posted on Twitter, boasting about 0% inflation for July. WSJ Editorial Board members pointed out that "the slowdown came largely from volatile energy prices, which had soared in June."
Prices continued on an upward trend, according to the BLS. Food prices rose 1.1% in July and are up 10.9% over last year. Take-home grocery prices rose at an even faster rate of 1.3% for the month and 13.1% over the past 12 months. The index for shelter climbed 0.5% in the last month and 5.7% in the last year.
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