US NFP: Poor weather seemed to have played a role - BBH

According to analysts from Brown Brother Harriman, today’s US jobs data offered no major changes. They see investors and policymakers looking through it. 

Key Quotes: 

“US jobs growth slowed in March more than expected, but the details of the report suggest investors and policymakers will look through it. The poor weather seemed to have played a role.  Construction jobs fell (15k) for the first time since last July, and the hours worked by production employees and non-supervisory worker slipped.”

“The 103k net new jobs were the least since last September when storms also distorted the report.”

“Average hourly earnings rose as expected by 0.3% and this lifted the year-over-year rate to 2.7%, which is the upper end of the range for the last several quarters.”

“One bright spot was the under-employment rate fell to 8.0% from 8.2%, which is a new cyclical low and speaks to slack still being absorbed.”

“The participation rate ticked down to 62.9% from 63.0%. A year ago it was at 63.0% too. Note that over the past 12 and 24 months, the participation rate has averaged 62.8%.”