Wages Not Buoyed In Economic Recovery

Though employment numbers keep improving, wages for the average worker have not increased, according to the New York Times. Employers added 2.95 million jobs in 2014, and the unemployment rate dropped more than a full percentage point to 5.6 percent, but in November the average hourly earnings rate dropped. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez called the wage situation the “unfinished business” of the U.S. economic recovery. However, one economist estimated that lower oil prices have had the equivalent impact of about a $1,000 raise for the year.