Nearly three times as many new US jobs as expected, and investors now bet on higher rates in December
With 165,000 extra jobs and unemployment at 4.1 percent, the Federal Reserve has little reason to sit still.
US employers created 165,000 jobs in October, while economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected around 59,000, Yahoo Finance reported, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Unemployment fell from 4.2 to 4.1 percent. Earlier months were also revised up: September from 29,000 to 60,000 and August to 186,000, InvestmentNews wrote.
Most of the jobs came in professional and business services (70,000), followed by health care (42,000), transport and warehousing (25,000) and manufacturing (19,000), according to InvestmentNews. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent on the month and 3.1 percent on the year. Because consumer prices rose 3.7 percent in the twelve months to September, workers' purchasing power is still slipping, Yahoo Finance notes.
The Fed raised rates in September for the first time since 2023 and held them at 3.75 to 4 percent on 28 October. Chair Kevin Warsh keeps the door open to further moves as long as inflation stays above 2 percent. After the report, investors put the chance of a quarter-point increase at the 8 and 9 December meeting at about 77 percent, up from 66 percent beforehand. The yield on the ten-year US Treasury rose to about 4.87 percent.