NEW YORK CITY—It's not uninterrupted blue skies for employment metrics, but the latest round of labor statistics shows those metrics continuing to trend upward. That's especially the case when contrasted with a spate of surprisingly bad economic news from across the pond. So says Ken McCarthy, senior managing director, economic analysis and forecasting at Cushman & Wakefield.

“If you look at things like the GDP and certain measures of consumer outlays, then not everything is running very strong right now,” McCarthy tells GlobeSt.com, in reference to Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen telling the Senate Tuesday that there are still “mixed signals” in the economy. However, McCarthy is of the view that the first quarter's comparatively weak performance was an anomaly, while the economy rebounded “a pretty healthy clip” in Q2.

And that momentum carried through to the numbers that came out last week. A report from McCarthy notes that the latest monthly survey from the National Federation of Independent Businesses shows 26% of respondents saying that jobs have become harder to fill, the highest level since early 2007.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the number of job openings nationwide rose to 4.6 million last month, the highest level in seven years. Conversely, according to the C&W report, the number of people filing for unemployment dropped to 304,000 in the latest week and has remained below 325,000 for a month and a half. Then there was the previous week's jobs report, in which the economy added 288,000 positions during June and the unemployment rate dropped to 6.1%.

“There are other indicators that are still modest,” McCarthy points out. “Consumer spending, while it's not contracting, is not booming. But we're starting to see more signals that labor markets are tightening and that businesses are getting more aggressive in hiring. You need to have these things happening to get the economy to the next level.”

Among other requirements, McCarthy says, “You need to have businesses more focused on the top line than on cost cutting. And we're starting to see that. When that happens, they're more ready to take risk and more ready to hire in anticipation of future growth, as opposed to hiring only when they actually see it.”

The latest news from Europe hasn't been nearly as positive. Last week, “all the major countries reported on manufacturing production in May, and output unexpectedly declined sharply in every country,” according to the C&W report. In France, output fell -1.7%, Germany recorded a -1.8% drop, Italy a -1.2% decline and even the U.K., which has been the strongest major economy in Europe, saw manufacturing production fall -0.7% in May.”

However, McCarthy cautions against making too much of the European statistics. “You have to be careful not to over-interpret one month's numbers,” he says, noting that they also occurred at a time when the crisis in the Ukraine was ramping up.

And there's reason for cautious optimism in Europe, as well. “In Europe, the recovery has boosted most real estate markets, and will likely continue to do so,” although the sustainability of growth is a concern, McCarthy writes. And, he tells GlobeSt,com, there's also reason to hope that this is the case: “For the US, it's better to have Europe growing than contracting. That's especially true for those of us on the East Coast, since Europe is a strong export market.”