WASHINGTON — U.S. workers face a dim future, with stagnant or falling pay and fewer openings for full-time jobs.

That’s the picture that emerges from a survey of Harvard Business School alumni.

More than 40 percent of the respondents foresee lower pay and benefits for workers. Roughly half favor outsourcing work over hiring staffers. A growing share prefer part-time employees. Nearly half would rather invest in new technology than hire or retain workers.

At the same time, it’s becoming harder for the executives to find skilled workers, according to the survey results being released Monday.

Jan Rivkin, one of the survey’s lead authors, suggested that a failure by companies to develop a skilled work force could ultimately hurt those companies and the competitiveness of the U.S. economy.

“The bleak picture facing middle and working class Americans are the canary in our coal mine,” said Rivkin, a Harvard business professor. “Eventually, that will come back to haunt business.”

The survey reflects the unevenness of the recovery from the Great Recession. Since the recession officially ended more than five years ago, many of the gains in employment, income and wealth have failed to circulate through the entire economy.

Few workers have received meaningful pay raises. Median household incomes, adjusted for inflation, are below their prerecession levels, according to estimates by Sentier Research. The median income was $54,045 in July, about 4.6 percent lower than when the recession began in late 2007.

The survey suggests that incomes aren’t likely to increase much anytime soon. Forty-one percent of respondents see lower wages and benefits ahead; just 27 percent expect pay raises. The survey’s responses run counter to some traditional economic models. Historically, a falling unemployment rate — the U.S. rate has dropped steadily to 6.1 percent — tends to spur competition among employers for workers and leads them to raise wages and salaries.

The survey found that many companies are reluctant to add jobs if other alternatives exist. Only 25 percent said they preferred investing in employees, compared with 46 percent who would rather spend on technology. Forty-nine percent favored outsourcing work over hiring.

The companies have become more dependent on part-timers in the past three years and say it’s harder to fill skilled positions.