The Dismal State of Wages and Productivity

Here’s another one of those all-encompassing graphics about the global economy put together by the folks over at The Economist, this one appearing in their Daily Chart feature today. Yes, it’s a lot of data and, yes, it’s almost all bad, just like the global economy.

Surprisingly, the U.S. is one of only a few nations where real wages have increased (modestly) from the 1999-2007 period to the 2008-2012 period. Emerging markets such as Lithuania and Latvia are really taking it on the chin and, of course, places like Greece and Iceland are not faring well by these metrics.