The latest report from the Department of Labor recently reported that the U.S. economy was only able to add a far fewer number of jobs than targeted in December. In the past month, the U.S. has faced a surge of Covid-19 positive cases.
The NFP data reading was only able to increase by 199,000 while the unemployment rate fell to 3.9%. This data is far from the target expected by economists who are targeting an increase of 422,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.1%.
The figures are a result of the increasingly alarming effects of Covid-19 transmission in December when more than half a million Covid-19 cases were reported daily. Most of them are infected with the Omicron variant which is feared to threaten economic recovery in 2022.
While growth slowed over the summer, economists expect that GDP will increase sharply by the end of the year, with the Atlanta Fed targeting 6.7%growth.
On the other hand, inflation continues to grow at a rapid rate with the highest reading in almost 40 years. Waima with the data released, there are some policymakers seeing the job market approaching full employment. As a result, the central bank has stated it will begin slowing down the assistance it has provided to the economy since the outbreak began.
The US dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against six major currencies, traded down 0.22% to 96.112 after the report was released.
