Gen Z is securing the bag

Wages for American workers aged 16 to 24 increased 12.5% over the year-long period ending in June, more than twice the rate of workers between the ages of 24 and 54, according to new data from the Atlanta Fed.

“Big deal,” you may say, “it’s normal for workers who are just starting out and earning less to see faster wage growth than their older peers”... and you’d be right. But last month marks the largest gap between ages in recorded history, dating back to 1998.

🤔 What’s going on?... In today’s job market, the biggest wage gains are happening at the bottom, with hourly, low-wage, and less-educated workers (who are more likely to be younger) seeing increases that have mostly kept up with inflation.

Young Americans are even outperforming all other age categories in absolute dollar terms:

• A 12.5% annual raise for 16-to-24-year-olds (median weekly wage: $685) amounts to an extra ~$85/week
• A 5.6% annual raise on the 24-to-54 median weekly wage ($1,103) is ~$62/week
• A 3.7% annual raise on the 55+ median weekly wage ($1,115) is ~$41/week

🇨🇳 Meanwhile… in China, things are the exact opposite. New data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics shows unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds hit a record 19.3% last month, more than twice the comparable rate in the US. And it probably won’t get better anytime soon: a record 12 million college grads are set to enter the job market this summer, a number that’s grown ~10x over the past two decades.