5 August 2022
If you are covering the latest labour market statistics from the US, please find below a comment from Hinesh Patel, portfolio manager at Quilter Investors:
“Today’s US jobs market report shows a labour market that remains red hot. Every single unemployment rate either dropped or stayed at post-pandemic levels as the economy ploughs on despite the economic trouble on the horizon. Private payrolls are now higher than the pre-pandemic level as the US continues to emerge from Covid is a better state than many of its developed market counterparts.
“The Federal Reserve will see this a sign that they need to continue to hike aggressively to get inflation under control and take some of the froth out of this tight labour market. However, the most recent earnings season points to some difficulty ahead. Just recently, Walmart’s results, a good indicator of consumer confidence and the state of the US economy, began to sound the alarm bells. The US is a robust market though, and much of the negativity, however, is being driven by statistical quirks and the scourge of inflation. The future direction of the Federal Reserve, as we have seen all this year, will ultimately depend on the path of inflation.”
