Better paydays may be coming for Americans

One major concern about the U.S. economy as it recovers from the Great Recession is number of "underemployed" Americans -- skilled workers stuck in part-time or lower-paying jobs.

Many analysts believe wage growth is essential if the economy is to regain momentum. Or as Eric Green, head of U.S. economic research at TD Securities pointed out in a recent analysis, "more job demand leads to better job offers, higher worker mobility, and rising wages," which in turn strengthens the overall economy.

However, even as the unemployment rate has fallen, Americans' wages have been slow to improve. But that trend might be changing. A new report from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas says wages are usually "the last piece of the employment mix to recover," and that salaries are poised for an overall increase.

Since the recovery began around five years ago, the U.S. has added an average of 182,500 new jobs per month, and job gains over the last year increased to an average of 250,000 per month.

The official unemployment rate stands at 5.5 percent, but as the report noted, as of March more than 125 U.S. metro areas had jobless rates below 5 percent. And that suggests employers might start seeing shortages of talented employees.

John Challenger, CEO at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, pointed to anecdotal evidence of employers offering better wages and benefits as businesses work to attract and hold on to skilled employees. "The return of higher-skilled, higher-paying manufacturing and construction jobs should also lift wages around the country," he said in a press statement.

"Furthermore, as more light is shed on the growing income gap between the haves and have-nots, there appears to be more effort on the part of some to correct the imbalance," he continued. "Whether those efforts will be enough to move the scales remains to be seen, but the fact that it is being addressed at all, is certainly a promising development."