The U.S. economy reportedly posted a surprising January job reading by successfully gaining 467,000 and the unemployment rate rose to 4 percent from 3.9 percent, according to a monthly jobs report from the Department of Statistics on Friday.
This reading far surpasses the forecasts of economists who only expect an increase of 150,000 following the increase in Omicron variant cases. Also influencing the experts' analysis was ADP data that lost 301,000 jobs for the month, and a week after the White House warned the nation to be prepared for "unexpected" employment reports.
Last Friday, National Economic Council director Brian Deese stated that “If taking into consideration Omicron in January and the increase in the number of sick people then it will have a huge influence on the data”.
Early weekly jobless claims data released Thursday showed a decline of 23,000, to 238,000, the second week in a row-but the decline follows gains that have been rising for weeks, and could impact the employment sector to bounce back, at least. lack for a while.
It should be noted that America has millions of people who have not yet been vaccinated. On that basis, experts believe that the Omicron variant can spread faster and affect a large part of the economy including the restaurant sector, schools and other activities.
The US dollar index, which measures the US dollar against six major currencies, traded stronger after the NFP report was released with a 0.15% strengthening to the trading level of 95.53.
