US businesses cast wider net as jobless rate hits 3.9 pct.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the U.S. unemployment rate near a five-decade low, companies are looking harder for employees, and in some cases finding them right at their own workplaces.

Businesses are adding more hours for part-timers and converting contractors to full-time workers. Americans with fewer skills are also benefiting from hiring managers’ desperation: The unemployment rate for those without a high-school degree fell to a record low in July.

Employers added 157,000 jobs last month, a modest gain, the Labor Department said Friday. That’s below the 215,000 average for the first seven months this year, but economists said the slip will likely prove temporary.

The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.9 percent from 4 percent. That’s just two-tenths of a percentage point from the lowest in 50 years.

Consumers are spending freely and businesses are stepping up their investment in buildings and equipment, accelerating economic growth. That’s raising demand for workers in industries ranging from manufacturing to construction to health care. The economy expanded at a 4.1 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter.

The underemployment rate — which includes discouraged workers no longer searching for work, as well as involuntary part-time workers — dropped to 7.5 percent, the lowest in 17 years, from 7.8 percent.

Many companies are offering higher pay to find and keep workers, particularly for specific skills.

Brian England, the owner of BA Auto, a car repair shop in Columbia, Maryland, would like to add another technician and an apprentice to his 18-member staff. Yet auto repair work requires more technical skills than the past because of the increasing concentration of computers and electronics in newer cars.

He has raised starting pay roughly 10 percent in the past two years, from $60,000 to between $65,000 and $70,000.

“The more you make an employee healthy and happy, the more that they’re going to stay with you,” England said.