| The Associated Press analyzed nine economic recoveries since the Great Depression that lasted at least three years. By most measures, the recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-2009 is the worst. Wage growth has never been weaker in the three years after a recession ended, according to government numbers going back to 1964. Average wages in June were 0.8 percent lower than when the recession ended in June 2009. |
| Here is the change in the inflation-adjusted wages of production and nonsupervisory employees _ who make up about 80 percent of the American work force _ in the three years after recessions ended: |
| 1969-1970 +5.1 percent |
| 1973-1975 +2.3 percent |
| 1981-1982 +0.5 percent |
| 2001 -0.1 percent |
| 1990-1991 -0.4 percent |
| 2007-2009 -0.8 percent |