The golden arches marquee at the 24-hour McDonald's in my neighborhood, which customarily touts Big Macs or bigger drinks, now says "Hiring All Shifts." In busy retail areas across town, scarcely a storefront doesn't have a similar message.

With the incessant gloom-and-doom coming from certain presidential candidates, the fact that the U.S. economy is "becoming great again" may seem out of place, yet it is actually happening. Hundreds of thousands of workers are back at work. Discouraged workers who had stopped looking are now sporting paychecks.

Real gross domestic product — the value of the goods and services produced by our economy minus the value of the goods and services used up in production — increased 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to the closely watched Bureau of Economic Analysis report released March 25. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent. Looking back, our economy has grown in every quarter of the past four years, except for first quarter of 2014.

So why isn't there dancing in the streets? Well, until recently, the unemployment rate had not been keeping pace with GDP. One reason economists point to is the long-term trend of baby boomers retiring. Another reason is that during and after recessions, many potential employees seek to go on disability or back to school. Average wage growth across the economy has been around an unexciting 2 percent nationally, according to payroll processor ADP.

Despite all that, growth was occurring and more hands were needed. Some manufacturers unable to find experienced workers were willing to split jobs into two positions and hire lower-skilled workers for less-complex tasks, according to staffing firm Adecco. Others companies decided to bring on unskilled workers and train them. And those already employed saw companies offer bigger raises in the fourth quarter as a retention strategy.

Another new factor is the many municipalities and states bent on pushing up the minimum wage. California, for example, just reached a deal to bump its statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022. Despite the long-term misgivings of economists who calculate that prices will inevitably rise both to pay these higher wages and in response to increased demand, a pay raise makes working more attractive in the short term.

The overall effect is a tighter labor market with the labor force participation rate — the portion of the U.S. population working or looking for jobs — increasing from 62.4 percent to 62.9 percent since September after drifting lower since 2008, Labor Department figures show. Increasing competition for workers should steadily lift wages and home values.

Supporting continued optimism about the economy is that consumer spending, which makes up more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose by 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter. The demonstrates the economy's underlying strength and should calm talk of a recession, which triggered a massive stock market sell-off early this year. And low gas prices continue to accelerate other household spending.

Finally, a new report from Standard & Poor/Case-Shiller shows home values rose in all 20 metro-area markets covered by the report, which account for roughly half of the housing stock in the country. And a separate report from the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 96.2 this month as a rebound in the stock market invigorated the outlook.

Better make that "Help Wanted" sign even bigger!