Friday, March 4, 2022
Pre-market futures are in the red, but off early-morning lows we saw prior to this morning’s non-farm payrolls report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which were, frankly, stellar: 678K new jobs were filled in the month of February — the highest in seven months — with an Unemployment Rate dropping 20 basis points to 3.8%. This is as illustrative a bounce-back from Omicron’s temporary sag in the economy as one could expect.
Today’s headline was well ahead of the 440K analysts were looking for, and a big jump from January’s 481K, which itself was revised up by 92K. December saw an increased revision, as well: +78K to 588K for that month. So our three-month average for new jobs per month is now +574K — an historically high figure, and clearly excellent news for the U.S. labor market.
The Leisure/Hospitality sector, to no one’s surprise, led the way with 179K new positions filled; in fact, its sub-sector food and drinking establishments brought in more jobs, 124K, than second-place Professional/Business Services, which came in with a robust 95K. Healthcare made 64K new jobs and Construction was 60K. The labor force is now 2.1 million jobs from its pre-Covid levels.
Interestingly, Average Hourly Earnings were flat for the month, +0.03%, down from an expected +0.5% and the previous month’s +0.6%. Assuming we’re not due for a large correction in subsequent reports, this would indicate a lot more lower-level jobs being filled than higher-wage positions. In that Pro/Biz Services number, more than a third were taken by temporary office workers.
Labor Force Participation reached a post-Covid high of 62.3% — now 100 basis points from where this figure was prior to the pandemic hitting U.S. employment. Looking at the timing of the Omicron variant exiting the populace, it might be the case that reluctant workers based on Covid contagion are finally re-entering the workforce, which would be perhaps the best news of all regarding these numbers.
Somebody should tell pre-market traders, however; while indexes were down ahead of the jobs report, they temporarily turned back toward breakeven before plummeting lower than they had been previously. Perhaps they feel such strong figures will cause Fed Chair Powell to change his mind about ratcheting up interest rates only 25 basis points? The Dow is -309 points right now, the Nasdaq -101 and the S&P -36.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>
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New Jobs Highest in 7 Months: 678K, 3.8% Unemployment
Friday, March 4, 2022
Pre-market futures are in the red, but off early-morning lows we saw prior to this morning’s non-farm payrolls report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which were, frankly, stellar: 678K new jobs were filled in the month of February — the highest in seven months — with an Unemployment Rate dropping 20 basis points to 3.8%. This is as illustrative a bounce-back from Omicron’s temporary sag in the economy as one could expect.
Today’s headline was well ahead of the 440K analysts were looking for, and a big jump from January’s 481K, which itself was revised up by 92K. December saw an increased revision, as well: +78K to 588K for that month. So our three-month average for new jobs per month is now +574K — an historically high figure, and clearly excellent news for the U.S. labor market.
The Leisure/Hospitality sector, to no one’s surprise, led the way with 179K new positions filled; in fact, its sub-sector food and drinking establishments brought in more jobs, 124K, than second-place Professional/Business Services, which came in with a robust 95K. Healthcare made 64K new jobs and Construction was 60K. The labor force is now 2.1 million jobs from its pre-Covid levels.
Interestingly, Average Hourly Earnings were flat for the month, +0.03%, down from an expected +0.5% and the previous month’s +0.6%. Assuming we’re not due for a large correction in subsequent reports, this would indicate a lot more lower-level jobs being filled than higher-wage positions. In that Pro/Biz Services number, more than a third were taken by temporary office workers.
Labor Force Participation reached a post-Covid high of 62.3% — now 100 basis points from where this figure was prior to the pandemic hitting U.S. employment. Looking at the timing of the Omicron variant exiting the populace, it might be the case that reluctant workers based on Covid contagion are finally re-entering the workforce, which would be perhaps the best news of all regarding these numbers.
Somebody should tell pre-market traders, however; while indexes were down ahead of the jobs report, they temporarily turned back toward breakeven before plummeting lower than they had been previously. Perhaps they feel such strong figures will cause Fed Chair Powell to change his mind about ratcheting up interest rates only 25 basis points? The Dow is -309 points right now, the Nasdaq -101 and the S&P -36.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>