August payrolls grew by a less-than-expected 142,000, but unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2%
Source: CNBC
Published Fri, Sep 6 2024 8:30 AM EDT Updated 12 Min Ago
The U.S. economy created slightly fewer jobs than expected in August, reflecting a slowing labor market while also clearing the way for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates later this month.
Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 142,000 during the month, down from 89,000 in July and below the 161,000 consensus forecast from Dow Jones, according to a report Friday from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At the same time, the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2%, as expected.
The labor force expanded by 120,000 for the month, helping push the jobless level down by 0.1 percentage point, though the labor force participation rate held at 62.7%. An alternative measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons edged up to 7.9%, its highest reading since October 2021.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/06/jobs-report-august-2024.html
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Payroll employment rises by 142,000 in August; unemployment rate changes little at 4.2% https://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
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8:30 AM · Sep 6, 2024
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Article updated.
Previous article/headline -
Published Fri, Sep 6 2024 8:30 AM EDT Updated 3 Min Ago
The U.S. economy created slightly fewer jobs than expected in August, reflecting a slowing labor market while also clearing the way for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates later this month.
Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 142,000 during the month, down from 89,000 in July and below the 161,000 consensus forecast from Dow Jones, according to a report Friday from the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At the same time, the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2%, as expected.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Original article -
Nonfarm payrolls were expected to expand by 161,000 in August while the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
= new reply since forum marked as read
(I blame you guys 
)
The downside is that they only let you have 5 gift links but I do know they have wire services and some of the aggregators like Yahoo! (that you linked to), msn, and Aol will often put their stories up.
Oddly enough, I think some of the hedging is also because few (among the risk-averse) want to see the stock market get over exuberant over a big cut and then find itself in a whopper of a correction sooner than expected.
I think a cut is 99 44/100% going to happen this month but since it will be the first cut since reaching this apex in just over a year, they might be more conservative with it to see the reaction and then would adjust at the next opportunity.
I kinda chuckle about that period back when everyone was talking about "the pivot" that was supposedly coming, I think it was back around May 2023, after which July 2023 was first month when the rates were finally frozen, and have stayed there ever since).
First I think they will do what is right as far as navigating the tight path between letting inflation get higher again (like it did first quarter of this year - my rolling 3 month graphs and month-to-month bar charts looked really scary back in April), vs. actually plunging us into a severe downturn or causing excessive economic pain jobs wise.
The situation back in April https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143231474#post1
e.g. PCE inflation --
Back to the latest. The Core PCE, their favored measure, is still 2.5% year-over-year and they are serious (in my opinion) about the 2.0% target, and I think they should be. The core CPI is 2.9% yoy.
Yes, I fully understand, and I fully realize, that I'm kind of an outlying naive, unsophisticated ring-ring-ring-a-ding-dong for thinking Jerome is actually trying to do the right thing, rather than doing everything in his power to bring on a pre-election recession.
(I get tired of pointing out that the FOMC committee makes the rate decision in a vote, it's not the nefarious Jerome who alone decides; but I realize the smartest people in the room types will point out that they're all part of the Trump-loving tax-cut-wishing oligarchy, sigh. Sometimes I just need to take time off)
I put little weight on the argument that they won't do 0.50% because it might scare the markets and scare consumers and business leaders too.
I am always amazed, always, at how much good people around these parts seem to think a 0.25% cut will do. Really, they think 0.25% is going to propel a pre-election nirvana of renewed economic and job growth? As opposed to what I think -- it will propel the stock market up for a couple of days.
If the Feds think a rate cut is the right thing to do, I think they might as well do one that has some chance of at least minutely affecting the economy. And not just something that will give the stock market a couple of big up days.
I notice, however, that a reason against a big rate cut is that RECENT inflation (i.e. 3 month average and month-to-month) is trending sharply down and is already well below 2%: The core PCE 3 month average is 1.7% annualized, and the core CPI 3 month average is 1.6% annualized. Graphs and the summary table of all 3 inflation measures are here for both regular headline measures "with everything" and for the core measures.
So that's another reason for me backing off on my earlier 0.50% rate cut projection.
I think people forget that decision is done by a Committee, including a "Board" with several Biden appointees on it. I sort of liken it to how some think that John Roberts can swoop in and unilaterally override any SCOTUS decision.
Actually I wasn't thinking of the amount as something that would "scare the markets" but more along the lines of the opposite, where it could unintentionally juice them, as there are some (speculators) in the markets who seem to want to use these sorts of interest rate cut announcements as a Red Bull-type stimulant. I say this because of watching what happened in the past whenever there were "rumors" floated about "cuts" (like this past late winter/early spring), leading to the markets shooting up.
It's a tricky thing to be able to try to reduce the volatility that often occurs whenever there are simple policy discussions.
I actually think it will generate the same type of reaction when the hikes finally stopped (despite the predictions that "'Powell' (in quotes) would keep raising the rates more and more and more and we would end up back in the late '70s in a Volker redux).
