Banca March : Last week closed with US employment data in line with a rate halt by the Fed as the easing of the labour market is one of the key elements on the road to inflationary control. In this respect, although job creation was above consensus forecasts, the downward revision of last month’s figures and the lowest job creation in recent months show signs of moderation in a still tense labour market.
Official data for August showed that job creation reached 187,000 new jobs, a figure above expectations (170,000 expected), but which was overshadowed by a significant downward revision of the previous two months’ data, removing 110,000 jobs compared to the previously published data. Moreover, on the employment survey side, the economy’s unemployment rate rose more than expected by three tenths to 3.8%, largely due to a rise in the participation rate which rebounded by two tenths to 62.8% showing the return of workers to the labour market and a factor that should help curb inflationary pressures on wages. On this particular point, the data also confirmed this cooling of tensions, with the increase in hourly wages decelerating by one tenth of a point to +0.2% month-on-month, which now puts wage growth at +4.3% year-on-year against +4.4% in the previous month.
