A 10 Percent Increase in Real Wages?
Wow! … if true.
From Secretary of Commerce Juan Pablo ‘s December newsletter:
Over the last year, we’ve announced 156 billion dollars in net new capital investment across the Commonwealth. That growth is broad-based. We currently have 220,000 open jobs, with 85,000 more on the way, plus another 40,000 construction jobs. Because of this opportunity, real wages in Virginia have increased by more than 10 percent over the past year. The national average is just 4.2 percent. That means real wages in Virginia are growing at more than twice the national rate.
Real wages are a critical metric of economic wellbeing. If the 10-percent-increase-in-real-wages figure stands up to scrutiny, that’s an extraordinary accomplishment for Virginia. But does it stand up to scrutiny? Perhaps someone in our desiccated husk of a press corps could look into it.
Update from Austin Stevens in the Governor’s Office:
The Secretary’s newsletter was citing data from Virginia Works, which highlighted July 2024 to July 2025 data from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) report for BLS. You can see the wage growth highlighted for total private was 9.42%, which was rounded up to 10%. In the newsletter, we walked people through the nominal increase while highlighting the national/CPI data to end up getting to real wages.
Republished with permission from Bacon’s Rebellion.
