Capitol Report: Not delta but ‘all alpha’: economists react to July ‘remarkably strong’ U.S. employment report

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The July U.S. jobs report on Friday showed the economy added 943,000 jobs last month, with the unemployment rate falling to 5.4% from 5.9%.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had expected a gain of 845,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 5.7%.

Read:U.S. economy adds 1.88 million jobs in June and July

Below are some initial reactions from economists and other analysts as the main U.S. stock gauges
SPX,
+0.10%

DJIA,
+0.39%

traded higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
1.289%

rose 6 basis points to 1.286%.

  • “Markets feared the impact of the Delta variant on the U.S. jobs market. In the end what they got was all Alpha. This is pretty much a straight-A jobs report,” said Jay Mawji, managing director of IX Prime.

  • “This print should be enough to allow the Fed to announce an early 2022 tapering of QE at the September meeting.” – Katherine Judge, economist at CIBC Capital Markets.

  • “The stronger 943,000 rise in non-farm payrolls in July and upward revision to June’s gain indicates that employment growth has shifted into a higher gear and that the drag on hiring from labor shortages is easing. That suggests economic growth may be holding up better than we had feared and leaves open the possibility of Fed Chair Jerome Powell dropping a stronger hint that tapering is on the way at Jackson Hole in three weeks’ time.” – Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

  • “The jobs deficit now stands at 5.7 million, still substantial but narrower than 6.6 million in June and 13 million in July 2020. The pace in job growth has picked up although virus variants are a risk, especially if they impact in-person school reopenings. But expiration of unemployment benefits combined with ongoing vaccinations should result in an easing of supply shortages.” – Rubella Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.