US Labor Market to Cool Further But Not Enough Yet to Assure Fed
- Jobs report may show 200,000 payrolls gain, step down in wages
- Data have generally indicated softness but aren’t consistent
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The remarkably resilient US jobs market is beginning to cool, but Friday’s employment report will fall far short of the turning point Federal Reserve officials are seeking in their battle to beat back inflation.
The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists calls for payrolls to rise 200,000 in November and hourly earnings to climb 4.6% from a year ago. There are signs labor demand is ebbing, but a bigger slowdown is needed to bring that demand more in line with labor supply in order to contain the wage growth that’s helped fuel inflation.