The data on the US labor market turned out to be quite strong and did not make any changes in expectations about the tightening of the monetary policy by the Fed. The decision on the rate increase by 25 basis points during the next Wednesday is practically taken, since there are no longer expected any important statistics or statements before the FOMC meeting.
Nevertheless, the USD Index, which tracks the value of the US currency against a basket of six major currencies, slightly declined after the release of the statistics. It dropped 0.3% to 101.58 points from 101.88.
The number of people employed in the non-agricultural sector of the US (Nonfarm Payrolls) increased by 235,000 in February, after growing by 238,000 in January, the latter being revised upwards from 227,000. The consensus forecast was an increase by 200,000 jobs in February.
The number of employees in the US public sector in February increased by 8,000 people compared to an increase by 17,000 people in January (initially in January, there was a decrease in the number of jobs by 10,000 people).
The proportion of the economically active population in the US rose in February to 63.0% after 62.9% in the previous month.
The unemployment rate in the US fell to 4.7% from 4.8% recorded in the previous month, as predicted.
Meanwhile, the average hourly wage remained unchanged at 0.2%, while the indicator for the previous month was revised upwards from 0.1%. Analysts had expected an increase by 0.3% in February. The dynamics of salary growth is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve System, as it is an indirect indicator of inflation and evidence of an improvement in the labor market situation.
On an annualized basis, wage growth was 2.8%, which coincides with forecasts. In January, the revised value of this indicator also amounted to 2.8% compared to a preliminary growth by 2.5%.
The average duration of the work week in the US in February remained unchanged at 34.4 hours in accordance with the consensus forecast.