Is your paycheck keeping up with your grocery bill?

From Marketplace, I'm Sabrina Beneshore in for David Brancaccio.

We are getting a fire hose of economic data this week.

Unemployment is up, 4.6%.

Retail sales, flat.

We get more on inflation tomorrow.

And as these numbers come in, one thing that is becoming

clearer is that wage gains are slowing while inflation has been heating up. And right there in

between the two is the consumer getting squeezed. Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman reports.

In November, average hourly earnings rose three and a5% year over year. That's down from January when

wages were growing 4%. And that's very consistent with a slowing in demand for labor.

Nationwide economist Kathy Busjansik explains, in a sluggish job market, workers have less leverage to demand higher wages.

Meanwhile, as wage growth has weakened, inflation has strengthened.

Back in April, when President Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs, prices were rising 2.3% a year.

By September, that was up to 3%, meaning consumers' purchasing power is deteriorating.

And that just adds to the affordability strain that households feel.

The majority of Americans are indeed going backwards.

University of Maryland economist Peter Morici says there are exceptions.

There are all these folks in artificial intelligence and the supporting industries, putting up

data centers and so forth, that are getting very good wages and wage increases.

Because the sector's hot, and workers from IT to construction are in high demand. I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.

The Trump administration has ordered a blockade of oil tankers going into or out of Venezuela and labeled the government of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro a terrorist regime.

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