Market Wrap – US Payrolls Beat

The market showed a mixed reaction US economy unexpectedly added 253,000 jobs in April 2023, beating forecasts of 180,000 and following a downwardly revised 165,000 in March.

Accordingly, the US dollar gained due to rate hike expectations as the headline number started to allay fears of a major economic slowdown, plus the unemployment rate came in lower than the market anticipated.

Stocks showed a muted reaction as they continued to build upon the momentum from Apple’s earnings, while the VIX dipped by around three percent.

Data inside the report showed that employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, health care, namely ambulatory services, leisure, and hospitality, mainly food services and drinking places, and social assistance.

Employment also increased in financial activities, government, and mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction. On the other hand, employment was little changed in construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, and other services.

The April number largely exceeds the 70-100,000 monthly job gain needed to keep up with growth in the working-age population and compares with the average monthly gain of 290 over the prior 6 months.

The March reading was revised sharply lower to 165,000 from an initial estimate of 236,00. This may be seen as somewhat of a concern to some market players.

Importantly, the unemployment rate in the United States edged down to 3.4 percent in April 2023, matching a 50-year low of 3.4 percent seen in January and below market expectations of 3.6 percent.

The number of unemployed people decreased by 182 thousand to 5.657 million and employment levels rose by 139,000 to 161.031 million. Meanwhile, the labour force participation rate was unchanged at 62.6 percent.