Charles Lieberman, Columnist

Faster Jobs Growth Wouldn't Help the Economy

Jobs data show that fiscal stimulus is untimely and that the Fed needs to keep to its plans for rate increases.

February 2, 2018 at 4:43 PM UTC

Charles Lieberman is chief investment officer and founding member at Advisors Capital Management LLC. He may have a stake in the areas he writes about.

Jerome Powell takes the reins as Fed chief.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images

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Almost every report, news account and comment on the 148,000 rise in payroll hiring in December characterized the increase as weak, mediocre or somehow disappointing. None described it as strong or solid. As a result, fears of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve receded.

Yet all of these responses to that data were backward, and it has taken just one additional month of employment data, the January report released Friday, showing an increase of 200,000, to demonstrate that the labor market is quite tight. Reinterpreting the pace of job growth as rapid also requires a wholly different need for policy responses. Moreover, fiscal stimulus was untimely and the Fed most certainly needs to continue on its mission to normalize interest rates more quickly.