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US Average Hourly Earnings steals thunder in NFP jobs data
The headline Non-Farm Payrolls print for December showed that 223,000 jobs were added to the economy vs an expectation of +200,000 and a higher revised November print of +256,000. In addition, the Unemployment Rate dropped to 3.5% vs an expectation of 3.7% and a November print of 3.6%. By themselves, the Fed should be concerned about these two pieces of data as the Fed is looking for the Unemployment Rate to climb, which would help cool the economy and slow inflation. However, it was the Average Hourly earnings print that stole the show in the jobs data release. The MoM print was 0.3% vs an expectation of 0.4% and a ... (full story)