Hourly Pay Rose 0.13% as Hiring Slowed, and a Columnist Sees 1970s Echoes
Average hourly earnings rose 0.13% last month, according to the U.S. Labor Department, in figures released Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. MarketWatch columnist Brett Arends wrote that the same report shows pay falling once inflation is taken into account.
Arends argues in an opinion column that current conditions resemble the 1970s. He suggests that households and retirement savers may need to adopt the defensive habits of that era.
What the Jobs Report Showed
Real wages are pay measured after adjusting for rising prices. Arends said the Labor Department data show them declining.
He also said job creation slowed sharply last month, coming in at less than a third of what economists had forecast. The column does not give the payroll count.
The 1970s Comparison
Arends lists several parallels with the decade. They include rising prices, an energy crisis, growing international conflicts, a war he describes as being lost, and an unpopular president. He also notes that some Republicans claim Watergate was a hoax.
These are the columnist's characterizations, published under MarketWatch's Opinion label in his ROI column. The column was published Oct. 2 and updated Oct. 3.
Portfolio Ideas He Raises
Arends writes that a 1970s-style approach would mean tightening household budgets and accepting living standards that stall or rise and fall unevenly.
He adds that it could also mean holding gold, energy stocks and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), which are bonds whose principal adjusts with inflation. He cites the funds SGOL, XLE and SCHP, which track those three areas.
His case rests partly on history. In the 1970s, he writes, nearly all the mainstream investments people owned lost money, including the S&P 500 and bonds.
The column is opinion, not a recommendation from Net Worth.
Related Fed and Inflation Coverage
Net Worth has covered how policymakers are weighing prices, including the Fed's .
We also reported on after the latest rate hike.
The Arends column had drawn 65 reader comments by its Oct. 3 update, up from 17 when it first appeared.