Just 20,000 new jobs added to US economy in February
This may fuel concern about the mood among US consumers following a December retail-sales slump that was the worst in nine years
Washington — US hiring was the weakest in more than a year while wage gains were the fastest of the expansion and the unemployment rate fell, a possible sign that the US’s jobs engine is starting to slow down. Treasuries rallied while the dollar and stock futures fell. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 20,000 after an upwardly revised 311,000 gain the prior month, a labour department report showed on Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey called for an increase of 180,000. Average hourly earnings rose a better than projected 3.4% from a year earlier, while the jobless rate fell to 3.8%, near a five-decade low. Even with faster pay raises, the big miss on payrolls may fuel concern about the mood among US consumers following a December retail-sales slump that was the worst in nine years. Economists project that the expansion will slow this year, amid weaker global growth and the fading impact of fiscal stimulus such as President Donald Trump’s tax cuts. At the same time, policy...
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