Prime-age employment-to-population ratio predicts wage growth after 2007 : Prime-age EPOP and annual change in nominal wage growth, 2008–2018

PAEPOP NWC
2008-Q1 79.7% 3.8%
2008-Q2 79.4% 3.7%
2008-Q3 79.0% 3.7%
2008-Q4 78.1% 3.9%
2009-Q1 76.7% 3.6%
2009-Q2 75.8% 3.1%
2009-Q3 75.4% 2.7%
2009-Q4 75.1% 2.6%
2010-Q1 75.2% 2.5%
2010-Q2 75.2% 2.5%
2010-Q3 75.1% 2.3%
2010-Q4 75.0% 2.2%
2011-Q1 75.2% 2.2%
2011-Q2 75.0% 2.1%
2011-Q3 75.0% 2.1%
2011-Q4 75.3% 1.8%
2012-Q1 75.6% 1.5%
2012-Q2 75.7% 1.5%
2012-Q3 75.7% 1.4%
2012-Q4 75.9% 1.4%
2013-Q1 75.8% 1.9%
2013-Q2 75.9% 1.9%
2013-Q3 76.0% 2.1%
2013-Q4 76.0% 2.3%
2014-Q1 76.4% 2.4%
2014-Q2 76.6% 2.4%
2014-Q3 76.8% 2.4%
2014-Q4 77.0% 2.1%
2015-Q1 77.2% 1.9%
2015-Q2 77.2% 2.1%
2015-Q3 77.3% 2.0%
2015-Q4 77.4% 2.3%
2016-Q1 77.8% 2.4%
2016-Q2 77.9% 2.4%
2016-Q3 77.9% 2.5%
2016-Q4 78.2% 2.4%
2017-Q1 78.3% 2.3%
2017-Q2 78.5% 2.3%
2017-Q3 78.6% 2.4%
2017-Q4 79.0% 2.3%
2018-Q1 79.2% 2.5%
2018-Q2 79.3% 2.7%
2018-Q3 79.4% 2.8%
2018-Q4 79.7% 3.3%
Economic Policy Institute

Note: Data are quarterly, with nominal wage changes measured from the same quarter in the previous year.

Source: Prime-age unemployment-to-population ratio is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Population Survey and wages are the average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers from the BLS Current Employment Statistics.

View the underlying data on epi.org.