Average hourly earnings for most people increased at a 2.9% annual rate in April 2019, a downturn from recent average quarterly experience

If this were an economic recovery like past ones, you'd think we could put together a string of year over year increases on a quarterly average basis above 3.5% lasting a couple of years, but that is still far from the case. The best quarter we've had is 4Q2018 at 3.46%.

Employers still have the whip hand.