One of the more surprising numbers in Friday’s jobs report was that wages went up again — 5.1% over last year. No signs of a slowdown there. 

A lot of us in the workforce hear “wages are going up,” and think, “that’s a good thing! Especially right now, when everything’s gotten so much more expensive!”

William Rodgers at the St. Louis Federal Reserve agrees.

“These pay raises are badly needed for a major part of our country, particularly those at the lower part of the income scale,” he said.

And, he said we’re not in a place where rising wages are driving inflation.

“This report does not, I repeat does not, suggest a wage spiral like the 1970s,” said Rodgers. “In fact, there’s been no acceleration in wage growth.”

Instead, he said, it’s been pretty steady. And, inflation is starting to decelerate, at least a little. 

There are signs the job market is starting to slow, too, said Daniel Zhao at Glassdoor. “It might not be happening as quickly as we had expected,” he said. “But things are cooling off.”

It’s still strong, though. Unemployment is low, and the labor market is tight.

Julia Pollak at ZipRecruiter said that’s why wages are still going up. “Employers continue to experience acute shortages of qualified candidates, and people are leaving the labor market and not coming back,” she said.

So, many employers are still offering big salaries and sign-on bonuses to attract and keep workers. And pretty much everyone knows it.

“The past year and a half a very rapid wage growth has kind of set expectations among job seekers,” Pollak said.

And she said she expects that to continue for a while.