*(Via Business Insider) – US employers added more jobs than forecast in August, and wages increased at their fastest pace since the Great Recession, a government report showed on Friday.
The jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 201,000 on net, while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.9%. Economists had forecast that 190,000 net jobs were added and that the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Wage growth, which has been a major laggard of the ongoing economic recovery, was more impressive than forecast. Average hourly earnings increased by 0.4% month-on-month. And at 2.9% year-on-year growth, wages increased at their fastest pace since June 2009.
Several other reports show that many employers are running out of skilled workers to hire. With job openings exceeding the number of people seeking work, and with initial jobless claims at their lowest level since 1969, the labor market is still largely in good shape.
“Jobs are plentiful today … that’s not the problem,” Jim Baird, the chief investment officer of Plante Moran Financial Advisors, said in a note.
“Increasingly, the challenge is one for employers trying to find workers, particularly those with the skill set to fit their needs.”
August was the 95th consecutive month in which American employers hired more people than were fired, and there’s never been a longer streak.
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