WASHINGTON, USA- US job creation cools in August as Trump hammers Fed
The report did bring some good news, however: wages continued to rise, suggesting consumer spending – which is almost single-handedly supporting US economic growth – will continue.
.
–THIS SPACE BELOW IS RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT –
And the share of the working-age population with a job rose to its highest level since the depths of the Great Recession in December 2008.
“The softening in job growth should surprise no one. But it doesn’t mean the economy is headed toward a recession right away,” economist Joel Naroff told clients in a note.
Economists on Friday also pointed out that August numbers are frequently revised upward in later months.
Amid weak investment by companies and mounting fears of a recession, employers also say they are struggling to find qualified workers to fill open positions.
The slower jobs numbers should also support a Fed decision later this month to cut interest rates, as markets widely expect it will do for the second time this year.
.
–THIS SPACE BELOW IS RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT –
Late Thursday and early Friday, Trump took to Twitter to fire off the latest of many attacks on the US central bank, which he said had raised interest rates too quickly last year.
“They were WAY too early to raise, and Way too late to cut – and big dose quantitative tightening didn’t exactly help either,” said Trump, who has advance access to the jobs report before its public release.
“Where did I find this guy Jerome?” he said, referring to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he prompted to central bank chairman.
“Oh well, you can’t win them all!”
.
–THIS SPACE BELOW IS RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT –
Speaking on Friday at the University of Zurich, Powell said he and fellow policymakers tuned out Trump’s political taunts.
But Powell welcomed the report’s figures on rising wages.
“Our labour market is in quite a strong position. For a year and a half, we’ve been at half-century lows in unemployment,” he said.
“I think today’s labour market report is very much consistent with that story.”
Workers got a bump in pay, as hourly wages rose 11 cents on average, putting them up more than three per cent, year-on-year, for the 13th month in a row.
.
–THIS SPACE BELOW IS RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT –
But within the August jobs details there were other causes for concern. About a quarter of August hires came from the government itself as federal authorities ramped up staffing to conduct next year’s census.
Private-sector employers added only 96,000 jobs in August, well below the 145,000 which economists had forecast.
In the dominant service sector, the retail, transportation and utilities industries all shed jobs for at least the second month in a row.
Work forces also shrank in the mining sector, likely suffering from a dip in oil prices.
Hiring was cut in half from July in the education and health industries and was flat for auto manufacturers and information services as well as leisure and hospitality.
Wall Street appeared unimpressed with the numbers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 0.3 per cent.
.
.
–THIS SPACE BELOW IS RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT –