The US labour market may have added less jobs than expected but markets have found something else in the report on which to focus. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics 156,000 jobs were created in the non-farm sector in December against expectations of 175,000 but to offset this less-than-ideal result, November’s figures were revised up from 178,000 to 204,000 and over 2.1 million jobs were created during the calendar year 2016. The unemployment rate rose from 4.6% to 4.7% as the participation rate rose 0.1% to 62.7%
Analyst attention focused on the higher hourly pay rate. Now at USD$26.00 per hour, it is 2.9% higher than a year ago. Higher pay rates and greater weekly wages and salaries mean employees have additional money to spend and thus bid up consumer goods prices, although the extra money may well be saved or reduce debt.