Opinion: Why Americans are bummed out about the economy | CNN
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Because grocery bills and rent prices are unlikely to return to where they were just a few short years ago, the psychological scars from the war on inflation will linger, write Dana M. Peterson and Erik Lundh.

US consumers remain unimpressed with this progress, however, because they remember what they were paying for things pre-pandemic. Used car prices are 34% higher, food prices are 26% higher and rent prices are 22% higher than in January 2020, according to our calculations using PCE data.

While these are some of the more extreme examples of recent price increases, the average basket of goods and services that most Americans buy in any given month is 17% more expensive than four years ago.

  • credo@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 months ago

    It’s gone up more than 4% per year for the past 3 years. Even the article mentions a 5% increase when accounting for inflation. Though that seems high; the article is a mess.

    BLS:

    • Compensation costs up 4.0 percent from December 2020 to December 2021

    • Compensation costs up 5.1 percent from December 2021 to December 2022

    • Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 4.2 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2023

    Obviously this is flawed as we don’t have data for December 2024. 2019-2020 wasn’t a great time overall, but really we need the data for March to March, etc.