This will be a brief diary on an economic issue that should be a topic of growing concern.

One of the bad things that is coming out of an economy of long term systemic underemployment and unemployment is the potential for wage deflation at the same time that the cost of benefits like health care insurance will rise steeply for employees that have jobs are or are obtaining them.

The wages are still climbing, but the potential is there:

"For now, pay is still rising--a little less than 2% for the year through June 2008, according to the government's employment cost index. But the weak job market is creating the perfect conditions for a decline in pay: low inflation and high unemployment (9.7% in August). With a huge reserve army of unemployed--more than 2 million of them college-educated--it would be easy for many employers to demand concessions."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/con tent/09_40/b4149032652510.htm

There's more...