American Job creation falls in March

US Job growth has slowed to around a third of the previous month in March, with 103,000 new jobs being created compared to 326,000 in February. Unemployment held steady at 4.1 per cent, whilst year-on-year wage growth came in at 2.7 per cent. After such a high number of jobs created in February, the Financial Times measured consensus expectations for March at around 150,000, but today's figure has fallen significantly short of this, in part due to US construction and retail sectors shedding workers. More importantly, wage growth has failed to surprise to the upside, leading to Federal Reserve chief, Jay Powell, to comment that there is no reason to expect accelerating inflation quite yet based on the releases, signalling a more dovish tone. Equity markets have been relatively unphased by the news, though the failure of wage growth to pick up more strongly has led to US government debt being bought as markets temper expectations of the pace and extent of interest rate hikes for 2018.