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11 Feb 2014
Flash: Less-than-expected US jobs creation a worry - Societe Generale
FXStreet (Bali) - Kit Juckes, Head of Currency Strategy at Societe Generale, notes that the last 4-month average of +175k in the NFP continues to show less-than-expected jobs growth.
Key Quotes
"The US employment report was weak. The 113k increase in payrolls was way below expectations or recent trends, and came after a very soft (75k) increase in December."
"And yet, hourly earnings growth picked up slightly to 1.9%, the unemployment rate fell again to 6.6%, the labour force participation rate rose to 63%, and the percentage of the population in work picked up to 58.8%."
"So every measure of labour market slack showed that it is decreasing. Meanwhile, annual employment growth is still solid at 1.65%, and indeed not only is the 12-month trend in job creation steady at 186,500, but strong October/November payrolls ( ) were followed by two weak months (188k) to give us a 4-month average of 175k. We are all staring so carefully at the trees, that we have forgotten how dull the overall economic forest is."
Key Quotes
"The US employment report was weak. The 113k increase in payrolls was way below expectations or recent trends, and came after a very soft (75k) increase in December."
"And yet, hourly earnings growth picked up slightly to 1.9%, the unemployment rate fell again to 6.6%, the labour force participation rate rose to 63%, and the percentage of the population in work picked up to 58.8%."
"So every measure of labour market slack showed that it is decreasing. Meanwhile, annual employment growth is still solid at 1.65%, and indeed not only is the 12-month trend in job creation steady at 186,500, but strong October/November payrolls ( ) were followed by two weak months (188k) to give us a 4-month average of 175k. We are all staring so carefully at the trees, that we have forgotten how dull the overall economic forest is."