The growth rate also correlates quite well with the end of extended unemployment benefits. By raising the minimum wage, you've further increased the gap between the safety net and gainful employment, and thus given people more incentive to actually go and find work. More people working leads to capital actually creating value rather than being moved back and forth between the public and private piles. Good news, in general. However, we are talking about an awfully small sample size (a quarter, maybe two?). It will be interesting to see the data in a couple of years, assuming no major national or worldwide economic dislocation occurs, which, given the length of time that has expired since the last one and the cycles on which these things run, may very likely be just around the corner.