US unemployment falls to 7-year low, but paychecks remain flat, and many job-seekers give up

WASHINGTON — 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 figures released Thursday capture the persistently uneven nature of the recovery from the Great Recession.

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.

http://www.startribune.com/us-employers-add-223k-jobs-jobless-rate-falls-to-5-3-pct/311432421/