The labour market is overheating. Payroll employment rose by 6.7 million in 2021, and job gains were robust in January,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday at the Semiannual Testimony. Powell also stated that interest rate hikes to fight inflation are still on the way later this month, despite economic uncertainty due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
On the macro front, US nonfarm private sector employment change data for February was released on Wednesday and increased by 475K according to the ADP National Employment Report. Today, the focus is on the February US jobs report. In February 2022, nonfarm payrollincreased by 678K, far above the 400K expected. The strong labour market is also reflected in the unemployment rate, which fell to 3.8% from the previous 4%.
Amid growing concerns about the geopolitical risks that led several analyst, joining FED’s Chair Jerome Powell, to downplay the degree of tapering in the US, the labour market’s numbers seem to point in a different direction.