When it comes to earning more, January was a good month

SALT LAKE CITY — Americans on average earned 6 cents more every hour in January than a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For all employees on private, non-farm payrolls, this was a .2 percent increase hourly in the month of January. Over the past year, it has risen .6 percent.

While earnings increased slowly, inflation stayed the same when seasonally adjusted, according to an article by MarketWatch. It was anticipated to rise .1 percent. This is good news when buying food and paying energy costs, because the costs stayed about the same. This month, housing and clothing costs did rise, however.

“Inflation remains a back-burner problem, trumped by slow growth and the lackluster job market,” Jim Baird, chief investment strategist at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, told MarketWatch.

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