13 Jan 2014
Flash: A look at Friday's NFP numbers - Westpac
FXstreet.com (Bali) - Sean Callow, FX strategist at Westpac, shares his view over the dismal US jobs report from last Friday.
Key Quotes
"US non-farm payrolls rose just 74k in Dec, after Nov’s upwardly revised (by 38k) 241k gain. Even so, Q4 saw just 172k jobs growth average per month, little changed from 167k in Q3 but slower than 182k and 207k in the previous two quarters. Next month, annual revisions to seasonal adjustment factors and benchmarking will see these numbers change, possibly a lot, so absorb the message lightly! Construction jobs down 16k may have been weather-impacted, but there was broad-based softness (slower growth in jobs) across most industries."
"US hourly earnings rose 0.1% and hours worked fell 0.2%, constraining incomes growth. The jobless rate fell from 7.0% to 6.7%, as the labour force contracted 347k, wiping that number off unemployment, on top of the 143k jobs found by the separate household survey. This is mostly not a “good news” jobless rate fall, adding to the less impressive picture from the overall report."
Key Quotes
"US non-farm payrolls rose just 74k in Dec, after Nov’s upwardly revised (by 38k) 241k gain. Even so, Q4 saw just 172k jobs growth average per month, little changed from 167k in Q3 but slower than 182k and 207k in the previous two quarters. Next month, annual revisions to seasonal adjustment factors and benchmarking will see these numbers change, possibly a lot, so absorb the message lightly! Construction jobs down 16k may have been weather-impacted, but there was broad-based softness (slower growth in jobs) across most industries."
"US hourly earnings rose 0.1% and hours worked fell 0.2%, constraining incomes growth. The jobless rate fell from 7.0% to 6.7%, as the labour force contracted 347k, wiping that number off unemployment, on top of the 143k jobs found by the separate household survey. This is mostly not a “good news” jobless rate fall, adding to the less impressive picture from the overall report."