>What's happening: Spending on experiences, like travel and entertainment, has supplanted physical goods like clothing and home items as the purchases of choice for consumers.
>Zoom out: For spendthrift consumers, a saving grace has been rising wages that, while failing to keep pace with surging inflation, are still rising at the fastest pace in decades.
>They’re also bolstered by an unusually strong jobs market that has kept the unemployment rate below 4%, and given job seekers a lot of leverage.
While those who boast about job numbers are indeed oversimplifying, complaining that "average Joe is having a hard time to afford gas and groceries with his still same wage gig job" is just false. It's a meme that people spread on the internet because it aligns with their personal views, not because it's backed by the data.