Employers added some 248,000 jobs in September which helped to drive the nation's unemployment rate down to 5.9%, a six year low, according to the latest government report. In addition more than 60,000 additional jobs were reported for July and August over prior reported figures.
Despite the fact that employers in the U.S. are hiring in almost all sectors of the job market, and unemployment is declining, the average hourly wage for non-management personnel has remained the same for the last two months, and the annualized wage has increased over the past year only 2.3% just barely in excess of the government's computed rate of inflation.
Government experts attribute the lack of substantial wage growth in part to the fact that younger workers entering the job market are earning less than in prior years. Recent college graduates are making slightly less than $36,000 per year which is also less than the average wage for all non-management workers, most of whom lack a college degree. As older workers retire, or their positions are dropped from the wage-rolls, new positions being created are starting at lower pay rates than their historical measures. Another factor for the sluggish rise in pay is attributed to employers countering older workers' demands for pay increases with the possibility of replacing those positions with younger workers.
So even with 48 months of improving economic indicators including rising employment and diminishing unemployment, the fact that wages remain nearly stable means that businesses are optioning to add new lower-paid workers to the work force in lieu of paying more for the workers they already have.