The 2007-09 financial crisis, better known as the Great Recession, was one the largest economic meltdowns in recent times. It was followed by a long and unusually slow recovery.

Since then, we’ve had an immense runup in the stock market, accelerated growth in GDP, and steady increases in job growth. Yet, despite this positive economic recovery, wages are not keeping up.

Let’s go over a few reports and explain why they demonstrate that working hard at just a 9-5 job simply isn’t enough.

1 | Wages Don’t Keep Up With Inflation

Here, we can see the issues with wages: they are not keeping up with inflation. Consider the data in this piece by The New York Times. While the GDP has risen (after inflation), real incomes have barely budged.

In fact, if we look at U.S. wages over a longer period of time, wages after inflation have barely budged over the last 44 years.

The typical sale price of an existing single-family home in 2017 was 4.2 times greater than the median household income, according to the State of the Nation’s Housing report. That’s a significant increase from 2011, when the price-to-income ratio was 3.3, and 1988 when it was 3.2.

The report also notes that price-to-income ratios vary considerably across the country. The median sale price in 2017 was more than eight times greater than incomes in 12 metropolitan areas.

The rise in home prices relative to incomes has fueled growing concerns about housing affordability, especially for low and moderate-income households in markets where the ratios are high and rising. Moreover, the long, secular decline in interest rates that has kept monthly mortgage costs relatively affordable appears to be ending. Consequently, future price increases could lead more directly to increases in mortgage payments.

Despite an increase in wages most recently (2.9% as of August of 2018), income inequality has increased, leading even more to feel they aren't keeping up. While the stock market has benefited those with savings and 401(k)s, most don’t catch up.

2 | Workers Are Having a Tougher Time

Key Point: The level of financial stress among workers is significant. Look at some of these statistics:

• Nearly half of Americans have no retirement savings, creating increases in stress-related illnesses and heart disease

• 63% of Americans do not have $500 of cash on hand to handle emergencies or other significant expenses

• 40% of Americans had trouble paying for food, medical care, housing, or utilities in the last year.

• 70% of college grads have $15,000 or more of loans outstanding in their first year of work

• 4 in 10 Americans now have a “sides hustle” to make more money to help make ends meet.

• Employers like Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Uber, and Outback Steakhouse are now building programs to pay people every day, so they can better manage their cash.

When I was working in a financial institution, I had the unique ability to look into many workers’ bank transactions. I saw with my own eyes what it really means for 64% of Americans to be living paycheck to paycheck. These people just barely made enough to get by. Some even had outstanding debts, and they could only contribute small amounts in monthly payments. As Millennials entered the workforce, many found good jobs and have even experienced wage increases. Yet, they still feel like they are falling behind. In fact, the Deloitte Global Millennial survey shows that 45% of Millennials now believe they will never achieve the financial status of their parents. This is because workers experience wage increases at rates below inflation. Employees’ effective pay is decreasing as housing prices in many cities skyrocket and the cost of transportation continues to rise.

3 | Job Are No Longer Secure

In December 2008, the number of unemployed persons increased by 632,000 to 11.1 million and the unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has grown by 3.6 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 2.3 percentage points.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose over the month by 315,000 to 6.5 million in December 2008. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 2.7 million.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose to 2.6 million in December and was up by 1.3 million in 2008.

Even though the U.S. unemployment rate is getting lower, nearly half the country's workers are worried they'll lose their jobs, according to a new poll.

The Harris Poll surveyed 2,204 U.S. adults, 1,061 of them with jobs, and found that 48 percent of those working have what researchers call "layoff anxiety." The Harris Poll conducted the survey on behalf of CareerArc.

The main reasons workers worry about being fired are:

• They fear a recession is on the horizon (34 percent).

• They hear rumors of layoffs at work (32 percent).

• Their company recently laid off employees (30 percent).

After a few years of economic recovery, the unemployment rate did decline. Yet, workers have to face new concerns as robots, automation, and AI replace human jobs.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) concluded in a recent report that “a new generation of smart machines, fueled by rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, could potentially replace a large proportion of existing human jobs.”

Takeaway | There’s Always A Solution If You Choose To Seek For It.

Today, many people decide not to stay as a victim in these situations by diversifying their income outside of their 9 to 5 jobs. Many even take a bigger step by not only trading their time for a linear income at their jobs but also developing an asset-based income through their own businesses. A few years ago, my husband and I chose to start our business on top of our 9 to 5 jobs. Little that we know, the business that we built part-time would play a major role in helping us pay off our $83,000 student loan. Having more sources of income put us ahead of the game. We have no more debt and started to save money to buy our own home. When the world keeps changing, we must keep pace. Otherwise, if we choose to do the same things, we will be left behind, forced to live under our needs.

Written by Kiu Luu