Excellent Exertion

With 209,000 net new jobs in July and YTD average monthly employment gains averaging 184,000, just below the 187,000 in CY16, job growth is excellent. The employment-to-population ratio at 60.2% is at its best level since 2/09, and the unemployment rate declined to 4.3% despite a large rise in the labor force. Better yet, M-o-M wage growth was 0.34%, up from 0.15% in June; its best showing since 10/16.