10 Feb 2014
Flash: US NFP wrap - Westpac
FXStreet (Bali) - Sean Callow, FX Strategist at Westpac, provides a comprehensible summary of last Friday's NFP report.
Key Quotes
"US non-farm payrolls rose just 113k in Jan (median 180k), after Dec’s almost unrevised 75k (was 74k) and Nov’s upwardly revised 274k (was 241k) rise. Recently, there seems to have been some renewed loss of momentum that cannot just be explained by bad weather."
"In fact construction jobs jumped 48k in Jan after falling 22k in Dec, compared to an average 20k rise in the previous few months. That suggests weather hit that sector in Dec but those workers were back on site in Jan."
"We can’t be sure, but no other bad weather effect is discernible. In the separate household survey, the unemployment rate fell from 6.68% to 6.58%."
"The detail in the report was solid, including a 638k jump in household survey employment which more than offset a sizeable against trend increase in participation (from 62.8% to 63.0%), such that unemployment fell for the 7th month on the trot."
Key Quotes
"US non-farm payrolls rose just 113k in Jan (median 180k), after Dec’s almost unrevised 75k (was 74k) and Nov’s upwardly revised 274k (was 241k) rise. Recently, there seems to have been some renewed loss of momentum that cannot just be explained by bad weather."
"In fact construction jobs jumped 48k in Jan after falling 22k in Dec, compared to an average 20k rise in the previous few months. That suggests weather hit that sector in Dec but those workers were back on site in Jan."
"We can’t be sure, but no other bad weather effect is discernible. In the separate household survey, the unemployment rate fell from 6.68% to 6.58%."
"The detail in the report was solid, including a 638k jump in household survey employment which more than offset a sizeable against trend increase in participation (from 62.8% to 63.0%), such that unemployment fell for the 7th month on the trot."