Another Solid Unemployment Report But Not Enough For March Rate Hike

Another pretty solid unemployment report today as the US economy added 227,000 jobs in the month of January. The unemployment rate remained at 4.8%. There were, however, downward revisions of a combined 39,000 jobs for the prior months of November and December. Hourly earnings continued to rise, going up 3 cents in January. In the prior month, those hourly earning were up 6 cents.

Although the report was above consensus, it is doubtful that this will prompt the Fed to move forward with another rate increase in March. The hawks will be squawking about those rising hourly earnings but I just do see enough here to move the committee as a whole. In addition, the chaotic opening weeks of the Trump administration has raised uncertainty and increased global downside risks substantially. That alone will probably far outweigh any impact of another solid, yet unremarkable, employment report.