US: Macro Since March FOMC - Labor: Strong Jobs Growth ... (1/3)

The following posts are an excerpt from the MNI Fed Preview (full note here:
https://roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms/files/61350/FedPrevMay2024.pdf).

* Nonfarm payrolls growth again surprised higher in March (303k vs cons 214k)

  but unlike February's beat also saw a positive two-month revision even if it
  was back in January.

* Chair Powell's old estimate of 100k being a sustainable monthly pace of

  payrolls growth has long been dropped after strong immigration-led population
  growth, and indeed payrolls growth surprising almost 100k higher had less of
  an impact than might have been the case six months to a year ago.

* Nevertheless, markets still sold off, aided by other aspects of the
establishment survey being generally more hawkish than expected.
* Average hourly wage growth nearly rounded to 0.4% M/M (0.347% vs cons 0.3),
an important reading for a better sense of trend after two months of
weather-induced volatility, and hours worked also surprised higher.