Workers' salaries expected to pick up in tight US job market

Washington

AMERICA'S workers may be finally in line for a decent raise. After five years in which annual wage increases have averaged around 2 per cent, salaries are set to pick up as a taut job market prompts more employers to boost pay to retain or add the workers that they need, economists said.

"This will be the first time in a long time - and I'm talking a long time - that workers will see real wage inflation of some magnitude," said Jonas Prising, chief executive officer of ManpowerGroup Inc, a Milwaukee-based staffing company with more than US$20 billion in revenue in 2014.