US: Jobs Market Not So Strong - ING
James Knightley, Senior Economist at ING, suggests that the latest
Federal Reserve’s Labour Market Conditions index posted a third
consecutive drop, hinting that the jobs market may not be as strong as
Friday’s payrolls report had suggested.
Key Quotes
“Last
week’s US labour report offered more encouragement on the strength of
the labour market with the economy creating 215,000 jobs in March and
wages growth ticking higher. However, latest Federal Reserve index on
labour market conditions deteriorated for the third straight month.
Rather than rise 1.5% as expected, it fell 2.1% after a 2.5% drop in
February and a 1.9% fall in January.
The last time it had fallen
before this was March 2015 and the last time we saw three consecutive
falls was in the three months to June 2009. The main factors driving
this were a drop in company hiring plans and a perception amongst
households that jobs were becoming “more hard to get”.
Nonetheless,
this softening trend may be enough to lead to some caution at the
Federal Reserve after the more general upbeat tone of late.”
(Market News Provided by FXstreet)