President Donald Trump basked in the glow of several bright spots in the U.S. economy and even sought credit for a gauge of strong growth that’s still fairly cool: wages.

“Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone,” Trump said in his first State of the Union speech Tuesday. “After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.”

The labor market remains strong: The unemployment rate is the lowest since 2000, and applications for unemployment benefits are near the lowest level since 1973. Still, there are many soft spots, with paychecks a prominent weakness. A sustained acceleration in wage growth has remained elusive -- averaging just 2.2 percent during this expansion -- even though businesses have been adding jobs at a steady pace.

In addition, about 4.9 million workers are settling for part-time employment when they’d prefer a full-time position.

In his remarks, Trump gave a shout-out to autoworkers’ rising prospects and said many car companies are now building and expanding domestic plants. “This is all news Americans are unaccustomed to hearing -- for many years, companies and jobs were only leaving us. But now they are coming back,” he said.