Steady growth in employment is expected to be reported in the latest U.S. monthly jobs report. The Labor Department is set to release the report at 08:30 EST on Friday morning.
While the labor market in August is expected to have remained tight in the face of rate hikes to cool down inflationary pressures, Wall Street expects a rise in non-farm payrolls by 300,000. Average hourly earnings on a month-over-month basis are expected to rise by 0.4%, while hourly earnings on a year-over-year basis are expected to increase by 5.3%. These estimates exceed the month-over-month and year-over-year increases for July, which were 0.5% and 5.2% respectively.
Employment growth has persisted despite the outlook of numerous analysts that employment would ease in the face of cost reductions, particularly after Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole.
“While higher interest rates, slower growth and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses,” Powell explained, adding that these are the consequential “costs of reducing inflation.”
Jobless claims fell for a third consecutive week to the lowest level in two months, while first-time unemployment insurance filing are at 232,000, lower than Bloomberg’s estimate of 248,000.