US unemployment falls to 7-year low, but wages are flat

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. unemployment fell to a seven-year low of 5.3 percent and employers hired at a solid pace in June, but other gauges of the job market drew a bleaker picture: A wave of people stopped looking for work, and paychecks failed to budge.

The job market "remains consistent with a two-steps-forward, one-step-back expansion the U.S. economy finds itself in," said Scott Andersen, chief economist at Bank of the West.

[...] the proportion of Americans working or looking for work slipped to a 38-year low.

"After this report, I think it would make sense to wait until December to start that slow rate increase," said Tara Sinclair, chief economist at the jobs site Indeed and a professor at George Washington University.

The sluggish wage growth suggests that many employers see no need to raise pay to attract or retain workers and that there are more people available for hire than the unemployment rate would indicate.

Patrick Cimerola, senior vice president of human resources at Choice Hotels, the corporate parent of such chains as Quality Suites and Comfort Inn, said the company is raising pay and adding perks to hire workers in marketing, information technology and finance.