Thanks to our current economic troubles, it looked as if we might start seeing the average hourly wage start to fall, even before inflation has been taken into consideration. After all, there were many stories going around about companies cutting their employees’ wages. For example, FedEx announced in December that it would be reducing the wages of its salaried workers by 5%, while Caterpillar also announced that it would be cutting wages by up to 15% and employees at a Genera Motors dealership in the Pittsburgh area agree to work at minimum wage for one week.

Despite the reports of salary decreases, two separate government surveys have concluded that wages have actually continued to grow over the last several months. In fact, despite the fact that unemployment levels have reached their highest levels in 26 years, most workers have actually still received a raise over the past year. Of course, unemployment is still a very serious issue for the numerous people who have found themselves out of work during the recession.

“There are thousands of people applying for every job I’m looking at,” Rick Alexander, who is an unemployed master carpenter in Florida, is reported as saying in a New York Times article. “And potential employers won’t even give me the courtesy of acknowledging I applied.”

The harsh reality is that nearly 5 million people are currently unemployed and many of them have been without work for 27 weeks or more. Yet, the statistics show that companies are not doing a great deal of firing. Rather, they are doing only some firing and have simply placed a freeze on hiring. While this is certainly bad news for those who are looking for a job, it is good news for those who are currently employed.

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