With fewer prospective workers seeking jobs, employers should be having to pay up to attract and retain employees.

In communities where unemployment has already fallen below 4 percent, employers have found ways to cope with tight labor markets and still make money.

Black workers earn less than their white counterparts in a worsening trend likely caused by harder-to-measure factors such as discrimination and school-quality differences.

The Fed has raised interest rates as the economy has moved closer to the Feds goals, unemployment has dropped, and the U.S. has added 180,000 jobs a month on average in 2016.

Trumps election has spurred speculation over whether Republican-backed Fed reform proposals -- such as subjecting monetary policy to an audit or a mechanical rate-setting rule -- could become law, potentially limiting the Feds independence.

Employment seekers new-found staying power is one reason for an uptick in the labor force participation rate, which is defying aging demographics and is on track for its first annual increase in a decade.

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have said they would work to get Americans a raise if they win the White House. Simple demographics are a reason for skepticism.

Climbing vet bills suggest it's not just regulation and insurance behind health care cost inflation.