This morning brought two pieces of news from the BLS.  First, real earnings declined last month:

Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.8 percent from June to July after seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.  A 0.3 percent increase in average hourly earnings was more than offset by a 0.3 percent decrease in average weekly hours and a 0.9 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

Second, initial claims for unemployment insurance continue to be high:

In the week ending Aug. 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 450,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 460,000. The 4-week moving average was 440,500, an increase of 19,500 from the previous week's revised average of 421,000.

The BLS released information on real earnings in April this morning, and the news is not encouraging:

Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.5 percent from March to April after seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.  A 0.1 percent increase in average hourly earnings was offset by a 0.3 percent decrease in average weekly hours and a 0.2 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

The last three decades have not been kind to real earnings.  Take a look at the full history of the real earnings series:

 

From our friends at Marginal Revolution:

There's a reason why they didn't set Sex in the City in Paramus and most of the women there will be working even when the traffic gets worse.

Read the whole post for more about why married women work more in some cities than in others.  The subject reminded me of an earlier discussion at Vox Baby in summer 2006 about "Men Not Working."