Here comes the jobs report ...
REUTERS/Mike Blake
At 8:30 am ET, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the February jobs report.
Via Bloomberg, here's a quick overview of what Wall Street is looking for:
- Nonfarm payrolls: +235,000
- Unemployment rate: 5.6%
- Average hourly earnings, month-on-month: +0.2%
- Average hourly earnings, year-on-year: +2.1%
- Average weekly hours worked: 34.6
In January, the economy added 257,000 jobs, the 11th straight month that nonfarm payrolls few by more than 200,000, the longest streak since 1995. The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7%, though this is still at the lowest level since July 2008 as the labor force participation rate moved up to 62.9% in January from 62.7% in December.
In a note to clients ahead of the report, Goldman Sachs' David Mericle outlined three reasons why the jobs report could be great, but four reasons that point to a disappointing report.
Brian Jones at Societe Generale was among the most bullish forecasters for the report, expecting gains of 280,000 while noting that initial jobless claims for the report's reference week were low at 282,000, or 27,000 less than January's reference week.
We'll be back with the live numbers when they hit, and complete coverage of the data throughout the morning.
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