08 Mar Hopes continue for a Minnesota interest rate cut this spring
Hopes continue for a Minnesota interest rate cut this spring
Figures just released today show that unemployment increased to 3.9th and wage growth slowed. A more expansive measure of slack labor market conditions, which includes people working part time who would rather work full time, has been steadily rising and now stands at 7.3 percent. But at the same time the number of new jobs increased 275,000 last month. This was the third month of gains above 200,000 and the 38th consecutive month of growth. Health care and government again led the payroll gains in February, while construction continued its steady increase. Retail, restaurants, transportation, and warehousing, which have been flat to negative in recent months, picked up.
“We’ve been expecting a slowdown in the labor market, a more material loosening in conditions, but we’re just not seeing that,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.
The Federal Reserve is America’s first line of defense against inflation, and it operates independently of the White House. The Fed has raised interest rates to slow the housing market and business expansions, which cools the economy and allows supply to catch up with demand.
Yet for many voters, the Fed’s solution to high inflation is itself painful. Home prices have been jumping, and heftier mortgage rates mean that it is very expensive to borrow to buy a house, leading to widespread affordability problems.
Fed officials meet on March 19-20, and they are widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at that gathering. But investors think that they could begin to lower interest rates as early as June, a view that Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, did little to either strongly confirm or upend during his congressional testimony this week.
“We’re waiting to become more confident that inflation is moving sustainably to 2 percent,” Mr. Powell told lawmakers on Thursday. “When we do get that confidence, and we’re not far from it, it will be appropriate to dial back the level of restriction.” When he talks about restrictions he refers to interest rates.
As consumers our fingers are crossed!
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