August Employment Holds Few Surprises
09/02/2022
If the Fed were to alter its policy stance, August job growth would have needed to vary significantly from expectations. It didn’t. In fact, the report as a whole was mostly as expected. Finding an interesting take is a challenge.
In the establishment survey, nonfarm payrolls rose by +315k in August, slightly above the +298k median forecast, although downward revisions to the previous two months subtracted -108k. Payrolls have risen by 5.8 million over the past year and are now 240k above the pre-pandemic high point.