Every month the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases an inflation update on national inflation numbers and every other month they release a “bi-monthly” update that includes regional data, including the Seattle CPI. In mid-March BLS released their report showing inflation through February.
In last three parts of the wage series, we have discussed State wage rankings for the various public safety classifications. In the next part of the wage series, we run articles on factors that might influence or explain, at least in part, those wage rankings, using the updated 2023 wage rankings.
In our wage and settlement development survey, we’ve covered police, corrections, fire, dispatch, and records personnel. Cline and Associates collects and analyzes all public safety classifications on a statewide basis.
This is Part 5 of our 2023 Wage Series. In our last article, we covered Commissioned Deputy and Police Officer Wages. In this article, we turn to Firefighter and Corrections Officer Wages. We’ll cover Dispatcher and Records Clerk Wages in the next article.
In part 4 of our on-going wage series, we now turn to the rankings of County Deputy Sheriff and City Police Officer rankings throughout the State. This series always produces both expected and unexpected information about the relative standing of jurisdictions.
This is the third article in our wage series reporting on contract settlement trends. This article highlights some of the recent economic developments most likely to impact your negotiations outlook. As always, the most important variable for your contract is your local economy and your employer’s fiscal condition but the larger state and national trends have an immediate bearing on those and are worth an examination.
We have been closely tracking and reporting on inflation trends. The recent “ups and downs” (in inflation has implications for the broader economy but it has some rather direct impacts on our contract negotiations.
In the last newsletter, we reported on the Bureau of Labor Statistics release of the June CPI numbers. As was noted, over the past 4 months the CPI has slid dramatically, although the Seattle numbers remain high by historic standards and substantially outpace the national CPI indices. The June CPI-W numbers are reflected in this graph.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the June CPI Numbers on July 12. Both the Seattle and All Cities CPI numbers dropped significantly, although the Seatle numbers continue to notably outpace the national indices. This graph shows the relative numbers over the past 12 months and to date for the “W” index.
In our past two newsletters, we’ve discussed the continuation of higher-than-expected inflation. Those articles identified the prediction by economists earlier this year for the mid-year 2023 national inflation to subside to 3.6% and our doubts that those predictions will materialize. We are now expecting the June CPI numbers to be closer to 5% nationally and higher for the Seattle indices.
