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NAFCU's Long on FOX News radio: Wage growth reflects productivity
NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long joined the FOX News Rundown radio program Thursday to offer insight on the lack of wage growth as host Jessica Rosenthal explored strong and weak aspects of the U.S. economy.
In response to a question from Rosenthal on why wage growth has been stagnant, Long described it as "a bit of a mystery."
"The mechanics of wage growth are something that aren't that well understood, but the one real clear connection that we do have is with productivity," Long said. "Productivity has been quite low during the recovery."
Long add that recent figures from the Commerce Department, which indicated strong productivity in the second quarter, could lead to wage growth in the coming months.
However, Long acknowledged that it's difficult to measure the productivity of some industries that aren't necessarily making products.
"As our economy has focused more and more on the service industry, there may be some measurement bias in there," Long said. "That could be a factor, but I think the wage growth figure is indicative that the labor productivity is low."
The full program is available here; Long's interview starts around the 9-minute mark.