Jobs report: March data to show hiring slowdown, growth likely 'too high' for Fed
Yahoo Finance
Jobs report: March data to show hiring slowdown, growth likely 'too high' for Fed
Myles Udland · Head of News
Thu, April 6, 2023 at 5:11 PM EDT
The March jobs report to be released Friday is set to show another slowdown in the U.S. labor market, though hiring will likely remain robust even as the Federal Reserve
continues to raise rates in a bid to slow the economy.
Wall Street economists expect nonfarm payrolls grew by 239,000 last month with the unemployment rate set to hold steady at 3.6%, according to data from Bloomberg.
In February, the
economy added 311,000 new jobs while the unemployment rate rose to 3.6% amid an uptick in participation. Friday's jobs report will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Financial markets in the U.S. will be closed on Friday, however, for Good Friday.
Investors will also closely watch wage growth, with average hourly earnings expected to rise 0.3% over the month and 4.3% over last year. In February, wages rose 0.2% over the prior month and 4.4% over the same month last year.
February's jobs report served as a firm-enough signal for the Fed to proceed with a planned interest rate hike on March 22. Those figures dropped just hours before
Silicon Valley Bank was seized by regulators, however, with
Signature Bank also closed by regulators two days later on Sunday, March 10.
Notable impacts from the bank crisis, however, aren't expected to feature in Friday's report.
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