The booming jobs market points to inflation lasting for longer

It’s a good time to be looking for a job, with plenty of vacancies and wages rising. But higher wagers are driving inflation up – and it’s not just a temporary thing. John Stepek explains what it means for your money.

Delivery driver
Vacancy levels are driving wages higher
(Image credit: © JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

The biggest debate in markets right now is whether inflation is transitory or not.

This matters. If inflation goes away, we can go back to low interest rates and soaring growth stocks and a contained bond market.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.