While it may not have been mentioned during the political conventions, the U.S. job market continues to grow; even if it is not as robust as expected. The July jobs report was released last week, and the national economy added 225,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent.
Overall, the national economy has added 1.3 million jobs since January. Economists and analysts call this a “healthy improvement” but the pace of job growth is slower compared to last year. By the end of July 2015, 1.6 million new jobs had been created.
Also, workers’ wages have grown at a steady pace and are showing more signs of positive momentum. The 2.6 percent growth surpassed the same rate of growth in 2015, which was 2.2 percent. However, analysts concede that prior to the recession, wage growth was between 3 and 3.5 percent each year. This is one of the reasons why many Americans believe that the economy is still not in great shape despite the gains in wage and job creation.
In light of these gains, there are still scores of employees who are treated unfairly or even terminated for improper and illegal reasons. Even more troubling, many employees will still endure bad treatment out of fear that they will be terminated and thus forced to start over again with another company. Nevertheless, employees should know (and defend) their legal rights when it comes to be treated fairly in the workplace.
If you have questions about your rights as an employee, an experienced attorney can help.