WASHINGTON — The U.S. job market has steadily improved by pretty much every gauge except the one Americans probably care about most: Pay.

The unemployment rate has sunk to a nearly normal 6.1 percent. Employers have added a robust 2.5 million jobs the past 12 months. Layoffs have tumbled.

Yet most people are still waiting for a decent raise. Friday's August jobs report confirmed that average hourly pay has crept up only about 2 percent a year since the recession ended five years ago — barely above inflation and far below the gains in most recoveries.

NEW YORK — General Electric, a household name for more than a century in part for making households easier to run, is leaving the home.The company is selling the division that invented the toaster in 1905 and now sells refrigerators, stoves and laundry machines.GE instead wants to focus on building industrial machines such as aircraft engines, locomotives, gas-fired turbines and medical imaging equipment — which are much bigger and more complex than washers and more profitable.

NEW YORK — Packaged food giant General Mills plans to buy Annie's, the maker of rabbit-shaped mac and cheese, for $820 million, adding more natural and organic packaged offerings as consumers' tastes change.General Mills, the company behind classic food brands such as Pillsbury dough, Progresso soups, Yoplait yogurts and Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, has been trying to cut cost and has tweaked its recipes as sales stagnate.Sales have suffered as Greek yogurt and breakfast sandwiches became popular options for the morning meal. General Mills was slow to realize the growing demand for Greek yogurt, which has more protein than regular yogurt, but it has been adding some other options that it hopes consumers will consider healthier.