US employment is up, wages are static. Ring any bells?

The creation of 300,000 jobs last month sounds great but wages and manufacturing data are just as important, and both point to weakness

It seems just like the good old days. Almost 300,000 jobs were added to payrolls in America in the last month of 2015, continuing the upward trend of recent months. The US is once again living up to its reputation for being a gigantic jobs machine.

Well, perhaps. Jobs are certainly being created at a good lick and the US has an unemployment rate - 5% - that the eurozone, at 10.5%, would die for. There are signs that people who had given up hope of finding work are being encouraged back into the labour market.

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