UPDATE: On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. added 209,000 jobs in July, with the unemployment rate at 6.2%.

The first Friday in August is the day we get the government’s massive monthly jobs report. Which means we get to kvetch — or kvell — about how the employment economy is doing.

“We’ve seen not only a sustained uptick in job growth, with more than 200,000 new jobs being added month in and month out, but the quality of jobs has improved,” says Greg McBride is at Bankrate.com.

McBride says a lot of new jobs are in business services; blue-collar work has also picked up.

But take-home pay hasn’t — at least for most Americans, says John Canally at LPL Financial:

“Manufacturing — for the most part, wages there remain stagnant. [It’s the high-end,] high value-added jobs that require master’s degree or some advanced training [or even more], that’s where you’re seeing most of the wage gains [accrue to].”

And economists say spending on big things — like new cars and fancy summer vacations — won’t really take off until wages go up across the board.