Economists expect the US government’s employment survey to show job creation ticking up in September, but not by enough to divert the Federal Reserve from its path to one or two more interest rate cuts before year-end.
The labour department is expected to report on Friday that the pace of hiring rose in September, according to a Reuters poll of economists, with the addition of 48,000 jobs compared with August’s 22,000. Payrolls numbers have disappointed repeatedly in recent months, prompting downward revisions to previous months and fuelling expectations of Fed rate cuts.
The jobs market slowdown has been driven largely by the policies of President Donald Trump. While his administration’s tariffs and aggressive detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants have yet to seriously hurt the bottom line of US companies, they have helped to chill hiring.