After a series of peaks and valleys that confounded optimists and pessimists alike this year, the American economy seems to have settled into a healthy, if not spectacular, pace of job creation.
The US Labor Department reported nonfarm payroll increased by 217,000 in the month of May. With four consecutive months of payroll increases of more than 200,000; that is the first time in 14 years the US has seen such increases.
US unemployment declined to 6.3% of the population. A shift into service positions has been offset by advances in the technology sector, with payroll showing significant increases.
Wall Street was enthusiastic. Investors were pleased by the uptick in hiring and the lack of the kind of wage inflation that might prompt the Fed to raise short-term interest rates sooner than the current expectation of mid-2015.
