Jobs Report Points to More Interest Rate Hikes

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. economy added jobs at a solid clip in February, likely ensuring that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates for longer, though wage inflation showed signs of cooling.

The number of nonfarm payrolls grew by 311,000 jobs in the last month. Labor DepartmentThe closely-watched employment report was released on Friday. Data for January were revised to show 504,000 jobs, instead of the 517,000 previously reported.

Reuters polled economists and they predicted a 205,000 increase in job growth. To keep pace with the growth of the working-age population, the economy must create 100,000 new jobs each month.

Estimates of February payrolls ranged between 78,000 and 325,000 jobs.

The unexpectedly large increase in payrolls suggests that January’s hiring surge was not accidental.

Economists argued that January’s job growth was flattened by a variety of factors including unseasonably warm temperatures, annual benchmark revisions to data, as well as generous seasonal adjustment factors. This is the model used by the government to remove seasonal fluctuations from data. Seasonal factors were also partly responsible for January’s robust consumer spending growth.

After gaining 0.3% last January, the average hourly earnings increased 0.2% in February. The increase in year-on-year wages rose to 4.6% in February from 4.4% in Jan. This was partly due to the fact that last year’s low readings were eliminated from the calculation.

Jerome Powell, Fed Chair told lawmakers this week that the U.S. central banks would likely need higher rates than they had anticipated. According to CME Group’s FedWatch, financial markets had already priced in a 50 basis-point rate increase at the Fed’s March 21-22 policy session, according to CME Group.

Since March last year, the Fed has increased its policy interest rate by 450 basis point from near-zero to the current range of 4.50%-4.75%.

The Labor The market remains tight with very few first-time applicants for unemployment benefits despite prominent layoffs in technology.

This week’s data showed that there were 1.9 jobs available for every person who was unemployed in January. The Fed had fewer. “Beige Book” Report described the Labor As remaining “solid” In February, and noted “scattered reports of layoffs” That and more “finding workers with desired skills or experience remained challenging.” Perceptions of the household about the Labor Market sentiments were also very positive last month.

From 3.4% in January to 3.6% in February, the unemployment rate rose 3.6% in February. This was the lowest level since May 1969.

Some economists warned against over-emphasizing the narrow jobless rate gauge. Instead, they advocated a broad measure of unemployment. This includes people who want work but are unable to find full-time employment and those who have given up on searching.

This U-6 measure of unemployment was 6.6% in January. That means there were 10.9million people available to work. It is more than the 10.8million job opportunities at the end January. Labor Market was in balance

(Reporting by Lucia Mutiani, Editing by Andrea Ricci & Chizu Nomiyama