Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman joins the Yahoo Finance Live panel to discuss the latest on inflation and where prices are not rising.
Video Transcript
ZACK GUZMAN: And, I mean, prices rising not necessarily a huge problem as long as wage– wages rise in kind, which has not been the historical trend here, Rick. But when we dig into it, one subset of workers at least seeing a bit of a boost in terms of their wage– depending on where you look in the country– that would be plumbers. I know there was a short supply of them in Texas after that energy outage and cold front that we had, but what are we seeing when we look into the way the plumbers might be making a bit more in today’s day and age?
RICK NEWMAN: Yeah the eye- popping figure here is there’s a new study from a trade group that finds that in at least two markets– and these are both in Illinois– plumbers are now earning over $100,000 a year. And anybody who’s ever tried to hire a plumber may not be terribly surprised by that, because it is hard to find plumbers, period, and it’s hard to find good plumbers.
So what seems to be happening is we’ve got a construction boom, everybody wants to do a DIY project and remodel their house. That’s what people been spending their money on for the last year, and there just haven’t been enough plumbers. And I think the same is probably true for carpenters and roofers– I think are in short supply. So what is supposed to happen is when there’s a shortage of these kinds of specialties,…
