[quote=CA renter][quote=SK in CV][quote=poorgradstudent]Looks like unemployment is finally starting to catch up in what has been a largely jobless recovery.

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Largely jobless? Something like 12 million private sector jobs in the last 5 years, and more than 5.5 million in the last 2 years is jobless?[/quote]

But most of those new jobs are in lower-paying sectors than the ones that disappeared during the recession. It probably feels pretty “jobless” when people are making around half of what they were making just a few years ago. We know a few people who are literally making that much less![/quote]

From the from the BLS: “In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 12 cents to $24.75, following a decrease of 5 cents in December. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.2 percent.” With CPI that is under 2%, there has been some real wage growth.

Persons working part time for economic reasons and long term unemployed (> 26 weeks) are still much higher than historical data. However; they are both trending down rapidly. We might see some real wage growth in 2015 if the recovery continue.