Blog Post On: 4/22/2009
The MTR Economic Model (MTR-EM) was updated with March 2009 data. You can customize the chart below on the Economic Model page of this site.
The year over year percentage change of the number of people employed (blue line) continued to move lower in March in a sharpening pace. Real-Wages year over year (green line), which is deflated by CPI and multiplied by the number of people employed, broke a recent uptrend. Real-Wages (gray line) which does not consider the number people employed also retreated but by a fractional amount. This chart would imply that the the consumer is still under deep pressure to make ends meets. This in turn will impact company earnings and would imply the recent stock market up trend may not continue.