The American jobs machine has moved back into high gear.

After a long stretch of conflicting reports, the Labor Department said on Friday that the economy in July delivered a second consecutive month of robust hiring and rising wages in a signal that the expansion is strengthening, not ebbing, as it enters its eighth year.

Stocks surged, experts expressed more confidence that the Federal Reserve was likely to raise interest rates before the end of the year, and it was clear that long-stagnant wages for ordinary workers were advancing at a healthier pace.

“This was everything you could have asked for, maybe more,” said Michelle Meyer, head of United States economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “We’re seeing new entrants into the labor market, which implies a longer runway for the business cycle.”

With the political conventions completed, the buoyant jobs numbers also have major implications for the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump.