U.S. gained 235000 jobs in February

Wall Street stock futures pointed to a higher open on Friday as market players waited for the publication of the jobs report with the possibility of an upheaval in current expectations for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to hike rates at their policy announcement next Wednesday.

The data also indicate that wages are rising at the fastest pace since the economic recovery began eight years ago, and that almost a half million new jobs were created in the first two months of 2017.

The labor force expanded last month as more people were pulled into the job market. January also saw a 5 cent increase from December, 2016, meaning the hourly wage rose 11 cents in the past two months.

A blockbuster February for employment in the USA is being seen as locking-in a Federal Reserve rate hike on 15 March.

Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said the number of jobs added in February would “erase any lingering doubts that the Fed might not hike interest rates next week”.

Seven of the eleven supersectors added jobs from December.

Retail sector employment fell 26,000 after a gain of 39,900 jobs in January. “One more piece of evidence that the Canadian economy has turned the corner”. In addition, steady job gains tend to raise pay as employers compete for workers. The figure came as a surprise to economists, who had forecast the jobs to fall by 5,000.

It’s not quite the Donald Trump economy just yet-the president has as much to do with February’s job gains as Barack Obama had with the 700,000 jobs lost after his first full month in office-but the strong job growth of the past two years shows no sign of abating.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also says the world’s largest economy had a net gain of 235,000 jobs for the month.

The jobs data virtually guarantees higher interest rates “barring an asteroid strike on Washington”, said Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics.

This was the missing piece of the puzzle that Fed watchers had been waiting for to make tighter credit a near-certainty when the United States central bank’s chiefs meet next week.

“The Canadian economy is seeing a return to sustained healthy growth, which should absorb remaining slack and lead to eventual inflationary pressures”, DePratto said.

It would be only the third time in a decade that the USA central bank has increased rates.

There’s a lot going on under and around those employment numbers that will make life very interesting over the next few months.

Future jobs reports will show whether this month’s gains were the effect of warm weather, market trends independent of politics, or consumer confidence inspired by Trump.

And while some people are earning less money due to their geographic location, a lack of wanted skills for the current job market is also to blame.

And as unemployment declines, hiring typically slows as the pool of available workers shrinks.

However, Trump has repeatedly referred to the unemployment rate as a hoax, even suggesting the actual figure is as high as 42 percent.

Employment among youth aged 15 to 24 was little changed both in February and on a year-over-year basis.