American Wages Go Up In The Third Quarter

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(CNN) -- With the unemployment rate at its lowest level in nearly 50 years, workers are finally starting to see their paychecks grow a little faster.

Weekly wages rose at an annualized rate of 3.3% in the third quarter, the Labor Department announced Tuesday, which beats the 2.6% increase in inflation over the same period.

That's better than the 2% increase in wages in the second quarter, which wasn't enough to make up for inflation.

Wages have been the missing piece of America's economic recovery, with flat or very slow growth depending on which measure is used. Even the White House Council of Economic Advisers only found a 1.4% increase over the past year using adjustments that take into account benefits and changes in the workforce that make wage growth look higher.

The number of job openings reached an all-time high of nearly 7.1 million in August, the Labor Department also reported on Tuesday. That keeps the number of unemployed workers per job opening at 0.9, which is as low as it's ever been.

The number of layoffs, however, edged up by 176,000 to 1.8 million in August.

President Donald Trump was quick to celebrate the numbers shortly after they were released, tweeting: "Incredible number just out, 7,036,000 job openings. Astonishing - it's all working!"