US Jobs Disappoint in August by Adding 156,000 Positions

September 1, 2017 Share Print 0

The U.S. produced 156,000 new jobs in August, below Wall Street’s forecasts but still enough to keep a growing economy on an even keel.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted a 170,000 increase in nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3%. Wages increased by 3 cents to an average of $26.39 an hour, the government said Friday.

Hourly pay increased 2.5% from August 2016 to August 2017, unchanged from the prior month. The average workweek dipped 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours.

The government cut its estimate of new jobs created in July to 189,000 from 209,000. June’s gain was trimmed to 210,000 from 231,000.

via MarketWatch

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.