The Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge accelerated slightly in August from a year earlier.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that its personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index was up 2.7% in August from a year earlier, a tick higher from a 2.6% year-over-year increase in July and the highest since February.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation showed a 2.9% increase in prices from August 2024, the same as in July. The increases were what forecasters had expected.
Prices rose 0.3% from July, compared to a 0.2% increase the month before. Core prices rose 0.2%, the same as in July.
Separately, the report showed that inflation-adjusted consumer spending rose a healthy 0.4% from July, the same as the month before, largely on a 0.7% increase in spending for goods; spending on services such as travel and dining out rose just 0.2%.
“The resilience of the US consumer was on show once again,’' Michael Pearce of Oxford Economics wrote, though he cautioned that spending ”is being driven by households at the top of the income distribution.’'
Incomes rose 0.4%, the same as the month before inflation. Income for the self-employed and business owners rose 0.9% for the second straight month. Wages and salaries rose 0.3% from July, dipping from a 0.5% increase the month before.
Inflation has come down since rising prices prompted the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023. But annual price gains remain stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% target.
Last week, the Fed went ahead and reduced the rate for the first time this year, lowering borrowing costs to help a deteriorating U.S. job market. But it’s been cautious about cutting, waiting to see what impact President Donald Trump’s tariffs have on imports and inflation, and the broader economy.
For months, Trump has relentlessly pushed the Fed to lower rates more aggressively, calling Fed Chair Jerome Powell “Too Late” and a “moron” and arguing that there is “no inflation.”
Last month, Trump sought to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Fed’s governing board, in an effort to gain greater control over the central bank. She has challenged her dismissal in court, and the Supreme Court will decide whether she can stay on the job while the case goes through the judicial system.
The Fed tends to favor the PCE inflation gauge that the government issued Friday over the better-known consumer price index. The PCE index tries to account for changes in how people shop when inflation jumps. It can capture, for example, when consumers switch from pricier national brands to cheaper store brands.
A bad boss can impact everything from your daily stress levels to your long-term career growth — so it's no surprise that poor management is a dealbreaker for many professionals.
Nearly 7 in 10 U.S. employees say they might leave their job if they had a bad manager, according to LinkedIn's latest Workforce Confidence survey. But what happens when fewer people want to lead in the first place?
The survey also found that just 30% of individual contributors want to become people managers anytime soon.
Burnout could be the reason many are dodging the promotion into management. Nearly 3 in 10 employees also say their manager is often too stressed to support them. As organizations get flatter, many middle managers are getting squeezed, stuck between senior leaders' expectations and direct reports' needs, all while juggling more responsibility with fewer resources.