Research Team at Lloyds Bank, suggests that the focus today is the official US January employment report while the stellar jobs growth in Q4, averaging about 280k a month, seemed somewhat at odds with weaker GDP growth.
Key Quotes
“Today’s figures will attract particular attention as it will provide a timely update on the state of the US economy in the new year. Financial market volatility has picked up in recent weeks, related in part to increasing global economic headwinds, and has resulted in more cautious stance on the monetary policy outlook among major central banks.
The unofficial ADP employment report on Wednesday pointed to private payrolls growth of around 200k, which suggests that job growth remained relatively strong in January, although the mapping from the ADP to the official figures is not always precise.
Today’s official US non-farm payrolls are expected to be around 180-190k, down from 292k in December, while the unemployment rate is forecast to remain unchanged at 5.0%. Annual average hourly earnings growth is expected to ease to 2.2% from 2.5%.”
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