WASHINGTON — Years of steady job gains have finally begun to benefit a wider range of Americans, including those with less education and in lower-paying jobs.
A second straight month of robust hiring — 255,000 jobs added in July — pointed to employer confidence that suggested that the economy is powering through a slump that struck early this year. The unemployment rate remained a low 4.9 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.
Hiring has been solid for six years, but for most of that time there were caveats: Average hourly pay was stagnant. And millions were no longer either working or looking for work, leaving a smaller proportion of adults in the labor force.
Evidence is emerging that those long-running weak spots are finally improving. Many businesses are offering higher pay to attract workers as competition to fill jobs heats up. Average pay is up 2.6 percent from a year ago — matching the best 12-month gain since the Great Recession ended in 2009.
The resilient job market is encouraging more Americans to begin looking for a job — a key trend that helps offset a drag from the growing retirements of aging baby boomers.
Taken together, the two trends suggest that the economic recovery, now seven years old, is finally benefiting a broad spectrum of the population.
Economists at Goldman Sachs have found that pay for workers earning less than $12.50 an hour has risen 4 percent in the past year, more than for any other income group.
Those earning from $12.50 to $20 an hour have received the next-biggest increase, at just above 3 percent. Higher minimum wages may be bumping up pay for workers further above the federal minimum of $7.25.