The best three-month stretch of hiring since 1997 has positioned the U.S. labor market to start delivering stronger wage growth for a wider swath of Americans after more than five years of sluggish recovery from a deep recession.<\/p>\n
The economy created more than a million jobs over the past three months, with a steady gain of 257,000 in January and sizable upward revisions to prior months\u2019 figures, the Labor Department said Friday. The hiring spree prompted many previously sidelined American workers to begin the job search, causing the unemployment rate to tick up a tenth of a percentage point to 5.7%.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economy seems to be moving full steam ahead,\u201d\u009d said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at California State University Channel Islands. Following years of lackluster growth, \u201cI think it\u2019s the beginning of a healthy recovery.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n