Job growth and wage growth in the U.S. is expected to slow down in August, thereby providing the Federal Reserve with some justification to delay further interest rate hikes in an effort to further suppress inflation. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated at the Kansas City Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming that a cooler labor market is essential for getting inflation down to the Fed’s 2% target.
Friday’s U.S. jobs report is expected to show that employers’ payrolls are expected to have grown by 170,000 in August, with unemployment at a historical low of 3.5%. Should this forecast prove accurate, job growth over the past three months would be the slowest since the start of 2021.
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve will get a reading on its preferred inflation gauge – the personal consumption expenditures price index, minus food and energy. A second consecutive 0.2% monthly increase in July is expected, resulting in the smallest back-to-back advance since the end of 2020.