Sweet inflation casts a bitter pall on Halloween
“Swift swings” takes a fast peek at one financial pattern.
The quantity: Right here’s a spooky hit to your pockets: The shopping for energy of American wages has been minimize by a sweet bar in two years.
The supply: My trusty spreadsheet checked out some Halloween-themed analysis from S&P World Market Intelligence evaluating sweet prices and wages.
Fast evaluation: The pay of a median US employee purchased 15.2 sweet bars an hour in 2023 – that’s a 4% drop from 15.9 bars in 2022 and off 7% from 16.3 in 2021.
The issue isn’t pay raises. As a substitute, it’s sweet inflation, which is working 7.2% this 12 months – and that’s an enchancment over 14.2% a 12 months in the past. By the way in which, sweet costs have risen at a 2.9% annual tempo over the previous 20 years.
Or have a look at the inflation hit one other means with a candy twist.
People will spend a file $30 billion on sweet – 2% progress for the 12 months and up 34% vs. 2015-19. However when adjusted for inflation, gross sales are down 4% from a 12 months in the past and up simply 1% vs. 2015-19.
Sound chew: “After practically a decade of red-hot gross sales, sweet seems to have hit a bitter patch,” says Michael Zdinak, the group’s economics director. “There’s no sugarcoating the truth that wages haven’t stored up with the jaw-breaking rise in sweet costs, work in 2023 earns the common particular person a complete sweet bar much less per hour than it did in 2021.”
Jonathan Lansner is the enterprise columnist for the Southern California Information Group. He might be reached at jlansner@scng.com
