Wages surge, 250,000 jobs added

U.S. unemployment rate holds steady at 3.7%

Washington — U.S. businesses ramped up hiring in October, and wages rose by the largest year-over-year amount in nearly a decade, a combination that is pulling a rising share of Americans into the job market.

In the final major economic report before Tuesday’s congressional elections, the government said Friday that U.S. employers added a robust 250,000 jobs in October. The unemployment rate stayed at a five-decade low of 3.7 percent.

Healthy economic growth is spurring employers to hire at a rapid pace that shows no sign of flagging even with the economy in its 10th year of expansion. With the supply of unemployed dwindling, companies appear to be finally putting up generous enough pay raises to attract and retain employees.

Average hourly wages rose 3.1 percent in October from a year earlier, the fastest annual gain since 2009.

Still, inflation has picked up a bit in the past year as well, eating away at some of those pay raises. And the increase in wages last month also partly reflected a one-time drop in pay a year ago because of Hurricane Harvey.

Even so, October’s increase suggests that after a decade of anemic growth, wage growth is picking up. At the same time, an influx of new job-seekers increased the proportion of Americans with jobs to its highest level since 2009.

The economy has now added jobs for 97 straight months, a record. That steady hiring has helped reduce the unemployment rate for Latinos to 4.4 percent, a record low. Teenage unemployment dropped last month to 11.9 percent, the lowest since 1969. And the proportion of Americans without a high school degree who are working has reached the highest point on records dating from 1992.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” said Sun Wong Sohn, chief economist at SS Economics. “Evidently, the word has spread that there are good jobs to be had at decent wages.”

Cheyenne Mauzy of Springfield, Mo., had held out for higher pay when she started job hunting in June. She felt she needed a high enough hourly wage to make up for the cost of child care for her three children.

In late August, she took a job at a hospital in Springfield that pays $11.22 an hour.

Becky Frankiewicz, president of staffing firm ManpowerGroup North America, said companies are trying a variety of strategies to fill jobs.