EPI's Director of Policy Heidi Shierholz says there are three things in particular that she monitors when looking at recession indicators in the job market: the quits rate, temporary employment, and average weekly hours.

“The fact that most people didn’t see much of a rise of their wages and benefits is not because the money wasn’t there because the economy was somehow in trouble. There was lots of income and wealth produced. It didn’t get to most people. Then, you have to ask the question ‘Why didn’t it?’,” EPI's Larry Mishel tells Rolling Stone.