America’s employers kicked off 2018 by hiring 200,000 people in January— and triggered the biggest year-over-year wage gains since the end of the Great Recession. However, President Trump’s much-trumpeted historic decline in the black unemployment rate came to a quick end: The rate jumped from 6.8 percent in December to 7.7 percent in January, the highest it has registered since last April, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. The overall jobless rate held steady at 4.1 percent. According to BLS numbers, average hourly earnings jumped 2.9 percent from the same time a year ago, more than expected and the highest registered since June 2009. The jobs numbers exceeded economists’ forecasts of 180,000.
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