The latest data on employment and wages are out and it’s not good:

The figures from payroll taxes reported to the Social Security Administration on jobs and pay are, in a word, awful.

There were fewer jobs and they paid less last year, except at the very top where, the number of people making more than $1 million increased by 20 percent over 2009.  The median paycheck — half made more, half less — fell again in 2010, down 1.2 percent to $26,364. That works out to $507 a week, the lowest level, after adjusting for inflation, since 1999.

The number of Americans with any work fell again last year, down by more than a half million from 2009 to less than 150.4 million.

Source:
First look at US pay data, it’s awful
David Cay Johnston
Reuters, 10/19/2011