NEW YORK CITY—It's not uninterrupted blue skies for employmentmetrics, but the latest round of labor statistics shows thosemetrics continuing to trend upward. That's especially the case whencontrasted with a spate of surprisingly bad economic news fromacross the pond. So says Ken McCarthy, seniormanaging director, economic analysis and forecasting atCushman & Wakefield.

“If you look at things like the GDP and certain measures ofconsumer outlays, then not everything is running very strong rightnow,” McCarthy tells GlobeSt.com, in reference to FederalReserve chair Janet Yellen telling theSenate Tuesday that there are still “mixed signals” in the economy.However, McCarthy is of the view that the first quarter'scomparatively weak performance was an anomaly, while the economyrebounded “a pretty healthy clip” in Q2.

And that momentum carried through to the numbers that came outlast week. A report from McCarthy notes that the latest monthlysurvey from the National Federation of Independent Businesses shows26% of respondents saying that jobs have become harder to fill, thehighest level since early 2007.