Optics in the nonfarm payrolls – BBH

By FXStreet Analysts at Brown Brothers Harriman explained that the optics of the US jobs report was better than the details, which is the exact opposite of the January employment report.

Key Quotes:

“The US created 242k jobs in February. The consensus was for around 195k. The January gain of 151k was revised up to 172k The household survey showed a 530k increase. The market expected a 175k. In January the household survey showed an increase of 615k. Combined the household survey has showed over a million new jobs. This is the most in more than two years. The participation rate rose to 62.9% from 62.7% while the unemployment rate remained steady. Under-employment fell to 9.7% from 9.9% and is a new cyclical low. That is the good news.

The less favorable news is in the hours worked and earnings. The average weekly hours fell back to 34.4 from 34.6. This is a negative for output. Hourly earnings were expected to have risen by 0.2%, but instead fell by 0.1%. It is the first decline in more than a year. This dragged the year-over-year pace down to …read more

Source:: FX Street