{"id":672766,"date":"2026-09-04T19:48:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672766\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T19:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:48:06","slug":"us-goes-well-beyond-jobs-forecast-with-162000-roles-added-in-august-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672766\/","title":{"rendered":"US goes well beyond jobs forecast with 162,000 roles added in August \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US economy added 162,000 jobs in August, smashing Wall Street expectations and indicating that the labour market retains momentum ahead of a crucial Federal Reserve<\/a> vote on interest rates this month. <\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s figure from the Bureau of Labor Statistics marked a rebound from July when the world\u2019s largest economy added 21,000 jobs, upwardly revised from an initial estimate that 23,000 positions had been lost.<\/p>\n

August\u2019s total, which was well above the 55,000 forecast by economists in a Bloomberg poll, reinforces Fed chair Kevin Warsh\u2019s view<\/a> that the labour market in the world\u2019s biggest economy remains robust. <\/p>\n

It will also add to pressure on policymakers to contemplate a rate rise after Warsh said last week that the central bank\u2019s primary focus should be on cooling rapid inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the margin, this report favours the Fed hawks,\u201d said Andrew Hollenhorst, chief US economist at Citigroup. \u201cIt keeps the labour market off the table as a concern and keeps the focus on inflation.\u201d <\/p>\n

The two-year Treasury yield, which reflects expectations for US monetary policy, jumped 0.07 percentage points to 4.41 per cent following the release of the data on Friday. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Hawkish Kevin Warsh hints Fed will raise rates if US inflation does not fall soonOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Traders in futures markets added to their bets that the Fed will increase borrowing costs by a quarter point later this month, taking the market probability from 50 per cent to about 60 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the most committed dove would struggle to find anything in the August employment report to justify keeping interest rates unchanged,\u201d said Stephen Brown, chief North America economist at Capital Economics.<\/p>\n

The US dollar also advanced on Friday, gaining about 0.3 per cent against a basket of half a dozen of its peers.<\/p>\n

\"\"Has the Government\u2019s strategy to keep fuel costs down proved to be \u2018knee-jerk\u2019 and difficult to reverse?<\/p>\n

US jobs growth has been volatile this year, with the labour market cooling in recent months.<\/p>\n

Warsh said last week that despite a string of lacklustre hiring figures earlier in 2026, the jobs market was \u201cdoing well\u201d.<\/p>\n

August\u2019s snapshot of the jobs market is the last before the Fed\u2019s rate-setters give their latest decision on rates on September 16th.<\/p>\n

The central bank is under pressure to bring inflation back under control. The headline personal consumption expenditures measure of inflation that the Fed targets was 3.7 per cent in July, well above its 2 per cent goal. <\/p>\n

In a sign of the divisions on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Chris Waller, a top official, said on Thursday that he would be \u201cinclined\u201d to hold borrowing costs if the inflation data improved in the coming weeks. Fed officials will see the August consumer price index inflation report ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless you get a weak inflation print, it makes a hike in September pretty likely,\u201d said Mike Bell, head of market strategy at RBC BlueBay Asset Management.<\/p>\n

The unemployment rate remained at 4.1 per cent. Despite the positive jobs report, hourly wages are still growing at a slower pace than inflation, rising by an average of 3.1 per cent in the year to August. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US economy added 162,000 jobs in August, smashing Wall Street expectations and indicating that the labour market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,179,18,182,19,17,87781],"class_list":["post-672766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-federal-reserve","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kevin-warsh"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117214505990637501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}