Solid strength in the US job market continued in February, but unemployment rates increased.
Last month, the Non-Agricultural Payroll Bureau rose to 151,000, the Labor Statistics Bureau reported Friday morning. The economist’s forecast was 160,000 profit. Payroll growth in January was revised lower to 125,000 compared to the initially reported 143,000.
The unemployment rate in February was 4.1% compared to the forecast of 4.0% in January and 4.0%.
For all sorts of reasons, including tariff threats, stock market plunge, and the idea of US strategic reserves (not rumors) – Bitcoin (BTC), we’ve been watching major price fluctuations (mainly the negatives) over the past few weeks.
In part due to recent unstable macro development, market participants had previously almost eliminated the possibility of further interest rate reductions in 2025, but by May it has raised the possibility of Fed rate reductions to nearly 50%, increasing the probability of one or more interest rate reductions by June.
In fact, a report from Challenger on Thursday showed that the US-based employer last month announced 172,000 job cuts, the best reading since July 2020. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNOW model predicts the US economy will shrink by 2.4% in the first quarter of 2025, in contrast to analyst estimates above 2%.
However, slowing the environment can put the Fed in harsh areas. Even though the inflation rate was stubbornly perky, it felt the need to ease monetary policy to support growth, with a 3% year-on-year increase in January and a core rate of 3.3%.
