Fundamental Updates \Nick Nasad \ 8:57 AM EST \ March 5th, 2010
The US economy shed fewer jobs than expected in February with the unemployment rate remaining steady at 9.7%. Non-farm payrolls fell by 36K jobs which followed a 26K decrease in January. Expectations had been for a drop in payrolls of 68K and a rise in the unemployment rate to 9.8% as economists had factored in the severe winter storms of Feb 4-7 and 9-11 which likely prevented a significant number of Americans from being counted. Also with blizzards hitting the East Coast, a densely populated work area when transportation was badly disrupted by the snow, may also have caused a delay in new hiring.
The manufacturing sector added 1K jobs after rising 20K the previous month. The construction sector contoined to shed jobs at a sharp pace, with 64K more jobs just at builders. That followed a 77K drop in January. The services sector added 24K workers, following a 27K increase in January.
The data shows that the underlying dynamic in the US labor market has not changed. Job losses continue to abate and the weather-related losses should come back in next month’s data. As the economy continues to make incremental but broad based gains towards improvement it is only a matter of time before the economy begins adding jobs. There is also legislation being put into work that would help try and spur job creation. Since the economy is not yet producing more jobs than it is losing, the Federal Reserve is likley to keep interest rates at their low levels.
Following the release, the greenback strengthened agains the Yen and Euro as the data did come in better than expected and it showed that despite the bad weather during the month the US labor market continues to improve towards positive job creation.
Non-Farm Payrolls Show Economy Shed a Smaller than Forecast 36K Jobs
Fundamental Updates \ Nick Nasad \ 8:57 AM EST \ March 5th, 2010The US economy shed fewer jobs than expected in February with the unemployment rate remaining steady at 9.7%. Non-farm payrolls fell by 36K jobs which followed a 26K decrease in January. Expectations had been for a drop in payrolls of 68K and a rise in the unemployment rate to 9.8% as economists had factored in the severe winter storms of Feb 4-7 and 9-11 which likely prevented a significant number of Americans from being counted. Also with blizzards hitting the East Coast, a densely populated work area when transportation was badly disrupted by the snow, may also have caused a delay in new hiring.
The manufacturing sector added 1K jobs after rising 20K the previous month. The construction sector contoined to shed jobs at a sharp pace, with 64K more jobs just at builders. That followed a 77K drop in January. The services sector added 24K workers, following a 27K increase in January.
The data shows that the underlying dynamic in the US labor market has not changed. Job losses continue to abate and the weather-related losses should come back in next month’s data. As the economy continues to make incremental but broad based gains towards improvement it is only a matter of time before the economy begins adding jobs. There is also legislation being put into work that would help try and spur job creation. Since the economy is not yet producing more jobs than it is losing, the Federal Reserve is likley to keep interest rates at their low levels.
Following the release, the greenback strengthened agains the Yen and Euro as the data did come in better than expected and it showed that despite the bad weather during the month the US labor market continues to improve towards positive job creation.