One reason is the employers are offering salaries sharply lower than what the same job paid only five or six years ago — and people are turning them down! This is especially true for professional positions. Some pay no more and sometimes less than what secretaries earn. Thus, people could find ways to earn more money doing something else.
RE: One reason is the employers are offering salaries sharply lower than what the same job paid only five or six years ago
In 1993, I was a software developer programming in C/C++ under a Windows 3.1 environment with Microsoft’s first version of Visual Studio. I was on CONTRACT then at $50.00 an hour.
Today, I see the same contract position for .NET C# developers using Visual Studio 2010 in a Windows 7 environment at barely $55 to $60 an hour.
According to this inflation calculator:
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
$50.00 should be $88.00 today based on average inflation.
What accounts for the effective DECREASE in salary rate for the same skill?
I would say — COMPETITION.
We now have TENS OF THOUSANDS of software developers (many on H1B visas ) from overseas who can do the same job we can who are willing to work for lower rates.