Loading ...Thats the GOOD NEWS ! The Fed USES to JUSTIFY a RATE INCREASE ..say what ? what PLANET are they from ? CANT they READ ? SPIN SPIN SPIN ..left is right ,up is down…If we find the right words all will be well ..thats all thats needed FED SPEAK
The November payroll increase was widespread, with a solid 46,000 rise in construction and healthy gains in a wide array of services totaling 197,000. Employment increased by 244,000, while the number of unemployed workers edged up by 29,000. There were also upward job number revisions for previous months totaling 35,000. Since the last FOMC meeting in November, the two intervening employment reports averaged 255,000 as shown in the graph below.
Chart Courtesy of Citi Investment Research
Employment gains are averaging 210,000 month thus far this year. That’s down from 260,000 last year, but the two year trend seems strong enough to convince the Fed that the labor market can withstand a 25 bps increase in short term interest rates. In addition, average hourly earnings rose 2.3% from a year earlier in November and are up 2.6% from January to November. That’s the strongest cumulative growth since the Labor Department began tracking data in 2009. The Fed likes to see wage gains above 2%, because it’s their current inflation target (which hasn’t been met for several years).
On the downside, there were 594,000 discouraged workers in November, which was little changed from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The labor participation rate was up a tad, but little changed at 62.5%. The employment-population ratio was unchanged at 59.3% and has shown little movement since October 2014.