Market Watch

Economists say ‘wow’ to jobs report as wage growth picks up

By Robert Schroeder

November 2, 2018

Economists said October’s payrolls report showed all-around strength, and highlighted wages climbing 3.1% in the past 12 months as they called the data consistent with further tightening by the Federal Reserve.

• “In one line: Solid across the board, though hard to read the trends behind the weather noise.” — Ian Shepherdson, chief economist, Pantheon Macroeconomics.

• Jason Furman, who ran the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, said he didn’t see anything bad in the October numbers, citing strong wage growth and a bounceback in job growth from last month.

• Martha Gimbel, the research director at Indeed.com, summed up the headline number in one word: “wow.”

• “Overall, a higher than expected gain in jobs and annual wage increase above 3% should be positive for the US$ and negative for fixed income.” — Andrew Grantham, CIBC Economics.

• Jared Bernstein, who was former Vice President Joe Biden’s economic adviser, said the data showed “pretty much everything you could want in a monthly jobs report.”

• RSM chief economist Joseph Brusuelas said the data “just about guarantees” a December interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve.