U.S. Starts Year With Job Surge, but Pay Gains Are Weak
2/3/17
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from The New York Times,
2/3/17:
Job growth was quick out of the gate in the new year, the government reported on Friday, as employers added a healthy 227,000 workers to their payrolls in January. But despite a surge of local minimum-wage increases in states across the country, wage growth was meager.
The official jobless rate rose slightly, to 4.8 percent, but for good cause: More people were lured back into the work force.
“The labor market started 2017 on the front foot,” said Carl R. Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust. “This is a good, good number.”
The downside, he added, was a monthly 0.1 percent increase in average hourly earnings, bringing the year-over-year average back down to “its disappointing 2.5 percent trend.”
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