---
title: "The Wall Street Journal: Strong U.S. Job and Wage Growth Provides Assurance on Economy"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/bee98363-8b44-4191-bc55-92ba58a5fe4a
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/the-wall-street-journal-strong-us-job-and-wage-growth-provides-assurance-on-economy-2708795
category: "Finance"
topics: ["Finance & M&A"]
published: 2019-01-07T20:15:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:32:45.884Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/5dad3a69eff76ce7ba9bbf1468d990e38223.jpg
---

# The Wall Street Journal: Strong U.S. Job and Wage Growth Provides Assurance on Economy

**TL;DR:** The US economy saw strong job and wage growth at the end of 2018, with franchise brands like Batteries Plus Bulbs focusing on employee retention as they grow. Batteries Plus Bulbs has been taking proactive measures to attract and retain quality employees amidst a competitive labor market.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2019-01-07. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/the-wall-street-journal-strong-us-job-and-wage-growth-provides-assurance-on-economy-2708795).*

## Story

As 2018 came to an end, businesses across the U.S. economy continued to face a tight labor market heading into the New Year and franchise brands like Batteries Plus Bulbs were focusing on strong retention as they grow in 2019.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that employers closed out 2018 by adding 312,000 jobs in December, and 2.64 million on the year - making it the best year since 2015. Batteries Plus Bulbs, a franchise based in Wisconsin, has been focused on proactive measures to attract quality employees as they add locations, but has also increased efforts to retain good employees, understanding the competitive labor market that exists.

“Across the board, across pay scales, across skill sets, it’s very difficult to find employees,” Carole J. Witkowski, VP of Human Resources for Batteries Plus Bulbs, told the Wall Street Journal. “Everybody is going to have a problem finding the gems out there, so the goal for us is keeping them once we find them.”

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- franchise growth (topic)
- General (sector)
- Batteries Plus (company)
- Wisconsin (location)
- employee retention (topic)
- labor market (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/the-wall-street-journal-strong-us-job-and-wage-growth-provides-assurance-on-economy-2708795). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/bee98363-8b44-4191-bc55-92ba58a5fe4a).