Before another "wow" monthly employment report was released today, we knew the U.S. economy was capable of generating lots of jobs as it recovered from the loss of 8 million caused by the global financial crisis.
What we didn't know, however, was the answer to the “wage puzzle” -- whether, when and how wage growth would break out from a prolonged period of sluggishness that, unusually, has coincided with rapid employment creation (including 3.1 million new jobs last year, the strongest performance since 1999). This remains an important question for the economy, as well as the outlook for inequality and Federal Reserve policy.
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