Jessica Mendoza

is on pretty solid ground.

Take, for example, the jobs report, the monthly report that tracks how many people are getting hired and how many people are out of work.

But now, more jobs are showing up in other industries, too.

Adding jobs is one way to grow the economy.

Another way is to make workers more productive, as in produce goods and services more efficiently.

And that's happening too.

The Labor Department reported that productivity increased by more than 2% last year.

The GDP is also holding steady.

So if that's the case, and jobs and productivity are up, why do Americans feel so strapped right now?

Well, for one thing, there's inflation.

Through the first part of this year, inflation has been climbing rapidly.

In March, inflation jumped to 3.3%.

In April, it was 3.8%.

And then in May, it jumped again to 4.2%, which was a three-year high.

4.2% inflation, a pretty rapid spike in just four months.

This sudden increase can be traced back to one event, the war in Iran.

The Strait of Hormuz is closed.

The energy shock threatened to ripple through the rest of the economy.

Because when fuel gets more expensive, it becomes more expensive to move everything from groceries to clothing.

So we're talking about inflation.