The recent performance of the US job market has proved surprisingly strong. Unemployment rates are at a 30-year low and far below what most macroeconomists predicted could be reached without substantial increases in inflation. Job growth has been strong. Employers have expanded their recruitment to reach large numbers of youth, low-skilled workers, mothers heading families, and other groups generally not favored in the labor market. Even wages, which had been rising only slowly, have been increasing more rapidly.