U.S. jobs and wages grow twice as fast as forecast in December

(Sharecast News) - The U.S. jobs market was on fire at the turn of the year with both hiring and wage gains nearly doubling forecasts. According to the Department of Labor, non-farm payrolls surged by 353,000 in January, against economists' forecasts for an increase of 180,000.

That was on top of an upwardly revised gain of 333,000 in December, which had originally been reported as an increase of 216,000.

Average hourly earnings meanwhile shot higher by 0.55%, which was also nearly double the 0.3% consensus forecast.

Friday's jobs figures appeared to mark a return to the pattern of historically unusually large revisions to previous months' data seen around the turn of the preceding year.

Worth noting the latest data included revisions to the Establishment survey data for the last 13 months as a result of the annual benchmarking revisions and the updating of seasonal adjustment factors.

The January 2024 household survey data also reflected up-to-date population estimates.

-- More to follow --