Are wages stagnating?

Thomas Oliphant makes the case that wages have stalled:

the Labor Department reported that the average weekly earnings of people in the private sector who are not bosses fell during July by 0.2 percent.

If that were one month's statistical anomaly, that would be one thing, but it is a continuation of a trend that Americans have been feeling for a long time. The weekly earning data that the government collects involves roughly four out of every five participants in the labor force. Last year, for the first time in a decade since the US was emerging from a much different set of problems, the weekly earnings news after adjustment for inflation was negative.

With higher oil prices,the U.S. economy may go into a recession in the next 12 months.We used to think longer but,evidence is mounting that the economy is vulnerable.