JOB GAINS, BUT NEWS IS MIXED

WASHINGTON— U.S. job growth slowed in August as employers added 156,000 jobs, though still enough to suggest that most businesses remain confident in an economy now in its ninth year of recovery from the Great Recession. The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3% to a still-low 4.4%, the Labor Department said Friday. The government also revised down its estimate of job growth in June and July by a combined 41,000, leaving an average monthly gain this year of a solid 176,000. Friday’s jobs report pointed to an economy that is still steadily generating jobs, though at a less brisk pace than it did earlier in the recovery from the recession. With fewer people looking for work, fewer jobs are being filled. One persistent soft spot in the job market is pay raises, which remain tepid. Average hourly pay rose just 2.5% over the 12 months that ended in August.