The labor market continues to strengthen as the economy added 250,000 jobs in October and the unemployment remained steady at 3.7%, a 49-year low.
In other good news, wages increased by 3.1%.
Economists predicted the economy would only add 188,000 new jobs. Wages went up 5 cents to $27.30 an hour. From The Wall Street Journal:
During the downturn, wages were growing because employers were letting go of less-experienced, lower-paid workers, leaving higher-earning workers on payrolls.Now the opposite is occurring. With relatively few unemployed Americans looking for work, employers are increasingly having to bid up wages to poach workers from other employers. That has been happening for several years for higher-skilled workers such as engineers and welders, but now it is occurring for relatively lower-skilled jobs such as warehouse workers and home-care aides.“Given the increasing scarcity of unemployed skilled workers, the competition for workers continues to intensify,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer for Plante Moran Financial Advisors. “With the economy growing at a strong pace, the demand for workers is unlikely to abate any time soon.”
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