They can’t take this away from Barack Obama: The headline at the Times practically glistens. More jobs! Higher wages!
The Labor Department reported Friday that employers added 321,000 jobs in November — a much stronger number than expected — but perhaps even more significant was the biggest gain in average hourly earnings since June 2013.
Hourly earnings rose by 0.4 percent in November, double what economists had been expecting. That gain in hourly pay was significantly above the measly 0.1 percent increase in October, let alone the unchanged number in September. At the same time, the number of hours worked ticked up by one-tenth, adding to pay envelopes.
“The pairing of strong hiring and wage gains is a really strong indicator of the health of the economy,” said Tara Sinclair, chief economist at Indeed.com, a leading job search website. …NYT
The increase in pay should be encouraging for those who have been waiting on the sidelines for motivation.
Still — and although the economy is in very good shape — wages will have to continue to rise to outpace inflation, according to the report.
The current strength, however, has arrived and settled comfortably in the middle of Obama’s second term. It’s not something for which his opposition can claim credit. It wouldn’t be out of order to say that America is finally rising out of a Republican financial crisis and recession with no help from Republicans.
___
To balance the glistening headlines, check out Paul Krugman’s take on the numbers. He continues to worry about the Fed stepping in and upping interest rates.
There will, predictably, be calls to respond to the good news by normalizing monetary policy, raising interest rates soon. And we will want to raise rates off zero at some point. But it’s important to say that (a) we are still highly uncertain about the underlying strength of the economy (b) the risks remain very asymmetric, with much more danger from tightening too soon than from tightening too late. …Krugman,blog
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
graphic via shutterstock.com