Tightening U.S. Job Market Keeps Hope Alive Wages Will Grow
- Share of the population with a job is highest in seven years
- Drop in hourly earnings biggest blemish in strong jobs report
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Americans are joining the labor force in droves and finding work, casting a vote of confidence in the world’s largest economy even as wages continue to lag behind.
Payrolls grew by 242,000 workers in February, exceeding most economists’ forecasts, figures from the Labor Department’s survey of U.S. employers showed Friday in Washington. The workforce is growing at the fastest pace in more than a decade, the share of the population with a job is the highest since 2009, and the 4.9 percent unemployment rate matched an eight-year low, according to the agency’s separate canvass of households.