Kyle Risdahl

That didn't happen.

But there is one cost in this employer cost index that is exploding like a bomb.

Linda Barrington runs the Institute of Compensation Studies at Cornell.

Employers' cost of health insurance has risen 6.1 percent in a year.

So some of this barely okay wage growth we're seeing is going to get drained right on away to pay for that.

In New York, I'm Sabree Beneshour for Marketplace.

About a year and a half ago, we went to Phoenix, Arizona, which, as my companion on that trip, also Friday regular on this program, Heather Long said at the time, was ground zero for a new economy.

Semiconductors, which at the time the Biden administration was investing in heavily through the CHIPS Act.

Now it's data centers and battery plants as well as semiconductor factories.

But the point is, all that building needs a whole lot of labor.

One person training that workforce who we talked to while we were out there is Travis Laird.

He's of the Arizona Pipe Trades Apprenticeship Program.

Travis, welcome back to the show.

Yeah, thank you for having me, Kai.

When we were out there a year and a half-ish ago, spring of 24, and we went by your shop, your offices, this is not an exaggeration.

You were busting at the seams.

Every classroom was full.

Every facility was full.

You walked me around and there were literally people everywhere.

What's it like now?