by Calculated Risk on 2/21/2016 07:36:00 PM

From Marcoblog: Are Paychecks Picking Up the Pace?

Based on the Atlanta Fed's Wage Growth Tracker (WGT), the median annual growth in hourly wage and salary earnings of continuously employed workers in 2015 was 3.1 percent—up from 2.5 percent in 2014 and 2.2 percent in 2013. That is, the typical wage growth of workers employed for at least 12 months appears to be trending higher.

However, wage growth by job type varies considerably. For example, the WGT for part-time workers has been unusually low since 2010. ...

The take-away? Wage growth for continuously employed workers appears to have picked up some steam in 2015, and the recent trend in wage growth is positive across a variety of job characteristics. Wage growth for people in lower-skill jobs has increased during the last couple of years, consistent with evidence of increasing tightness in the market for those types of jobs. The largest discrepancy in wage growth appears to be among part-time workers, whose median gain in hourly wages in 2015 still fell well short of those in full-time jobs.

Weekend:
• Schedule for Week of February 21, 2016

• Fannie and Freddie: REO inventory declined in Q4, Down 34% Year-over-year

Monday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for January. This is a composite index of other data.

From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures: currently S&P futures are down 4 and DOW futures are down 32 (fair value).

Oil prices were down over the last week with WTI futures at $29.64 per barrel and Brent at $33.01 per barrel.  A year ago, WTI was at $50, and Brent was at $60 - so prices are down about 40% year-over-year.

Here is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are at $1.71 per gallon (down about $0.45 per gallon from a year ago).