The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in May, well ahead of the 190,000 gain expected by economists surveyed by Briefing.com Revised figures for April showed the economy adding slightly fewer jobs, a revised 159,000 new jobs versus an initial 164,000. The official unemployment rate fell to 3.8% in May from 3.9% in April, matching a 18-year low.
There was good news in today’s jobs report for April since the economy added 164,000 jobs, up from a revised 135,000 jobs in March. So yay! The jobs market rebounded from March weakness. And there was bad news in the report since economists had been projecting that the economy would add 193,000 jobs.
As you’ll remember when last we left the U.S. economy–on Friday morning–it had just reported a disappointing addition of 103,000 net new jobs for March. Economists had been looking for 183,000. The unemployment rate stayed at 4.1%, where it’s been stuck for six straight months. (Economists were expecting unemployment to drop to 4.0%.) Average hourly earnings, in a piece of good news, climbed 0.3% from January and 2.7% year over year.
The week’s economic news reaches a crescendo with Friday’s report on March jobs. That Friday report will set the tone for the market’s take on the speed with which the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its next two meetings. Right now the Fed Funds futures market is showing almost no chance of an increase from the current 1.5% to 1.75% range at the May 2 meeting. The odds, however, soar to an 80.5% chance of an increase in interest rates at the Fed’s June 13 meeting
Initial claims for unemployment for the week ended March 10 fell by by 4,000 to 226,000. That was in-line with projections from economists surveyed by Briefing.com. This is the 158th consecutive week that new claims for unemployment have been below 300,000. The less volatile 4-week moving average slipped by 750 to 221,500.
The U.S. economy added 313,000 jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were looking for a gain of 210,000 jobs. The one piece of negative news was on average hourly pay. Pay rose by 2.6% year over year, but that was a drop from the 2.9% year over year increase reported in January.
The major U.S. stock indexes were just about unchanged at noon New York time today–Standard & Poor’s 500 down 0.02% and the Dow Industrials up 0.25%–ahead of 24 hours or so of high headline risk. Today’s big event–maybe–is the tariff decision that President Donald Trump promised reporters this morning would be forthcoming around 3:30 p.m. this afternoon. Tomorrow’s big news is the release of the February jobs report
The U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected the 180,000 net new jobs. The official unemployment rate remained at 4.1%. The big news, though–the news that has rattled the bond market–is the increase in average hourly earnings
Ever since the January 11 announcement from Wal-Mart (WMT) that it would increase the starting wage rate for hourly workers to $11 (and provide a one-time cash bonus of up to $1,000 plus expanded maternity and parental leave b benefits,) pundits have seized on the news to say either “See, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Bill is already working,” or “This is all about competition for workers in a tight jobs market and has nothing to do with recent tax cuts.”
The U.S. economy added 148,000 net new jobs in December. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected growth of 190,000 jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised the November job growth to 252,000 from an initial 228,000. The official unemployment rate remained at 4.1%, the lowest rate since December 2000. The economy has now added an average of 204,000 jobs over the last three months of 2017
The U.S. economy added a net 228,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department reported this morning. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for a gain of 195,000. That kept the unemployment rate at 4.1%, the lowest since 2000. Disappointingly, however, average hourly earnings increased by just 0.2%, less than the 0.3% gain expected by economists surveyed by Briefing.com That took the year over year gain in average hourly earnings to 2.5%
The government reported this morning that the economy added a net 261,000 jobs in October. That was not quite as big a post-hurricane bounce as economists had expected (economists surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for 300,000 jobs) but it was above the average of 162,000 a month over the last three months. The number crunchers also raised the September total to 18,000 jobs from a previous loss
