US jobs report shows improvements

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Years of steady job gains finally have begun to benefit a wider range of Americans, including those with less education and in lower-paying jobs.

A second-straight month of robust hiring – 255,000 jobs added in July – pointed to employer confidence that suggested that the economy is powering through a slump that struck early this year. The unemployment rate remained a low 4.9 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.

Hiring has been solid for six years, but for most of that time there were caveats: Average hourly pay was stagnant. And millions were no longer either working or looking for work, leaving a smaller proportion of adults in the labor force.

Evidence is emerging that those long-running weak spots are finally improving. Many businesses are offering higher pay to attract workers as competition to fill jobs heats up. Average pay is up 2.6 percent from a year ago – matching the best 12-month gain since the Great Recession ended in 2009 and comfortably above inflation of just 1 percent.

The resilient job market is encouraging more Americans to begin looking for a job – a key trend that helps offset a drag from the growing retirements of aging baby boomers.

Taken together, the two trends suggest that the economic recovery, now 7 years old, is finally benefiting a broad spectrum of the population.

Economists at Goldman Sachs have found that pay for workers earning less than $12.50 an hour has risen 4 percent in the past year, more than for any other income group.