Average hourly wages jumped by 2.9 percent when compared to last January, the biggest increase since 2009.
The good news about the American economy got a whole lot better in January. About 200,000 jobs were created, higher than the 180,000 expected. The unemployment rate held at 4.1 percent, an 18-year low. Best of all, though, after decades of little to no wage growth for hourly workers, we saw a jump of nearly three percent, which is much higher than expected.
“Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent from the prior month following an upwardly revised 0.4 percent gain,” Bloomberg reports. “The 2.9 advance from a year earlier — which partly reflected a downward revision to the January 2017 wage figure — compared with projections for a 2.6 percent increase. December’s gain was revised upward to 2.7 percent.”
The deep-dive numbers are also good news for the working and middle class. Construction and manufacturing added 36,000 and 15,000 jobs, respectively.
Other than the tax cut, the full effect of which we will not see until the February numbers are released next month, one factor improving hourly wages might be the Trump administration’s dedication to enforcing America’s immigration laws.
Illegal border crossings have decreased, and those in the country illegally are finally being deported, even from the Democrats’ sanctuary cities and states.
Illegal aliens are mostly unskilled hourly workers who depress wages for obvious reasons. The fewer illegals in the country, the better the wages for Americans and legal immigrants.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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