US payrolls post 710,000 job losses in March

US payrolls post 710,000 job losses in March

US non farm payrolls have delivered their first negative print since March 2009. The level of job loss was predicted to come in at 100,000 losses, down from 270,000 jobs created in February. The actual number came in at a total loss of 701,000 which was seen as a massive miss Vs expectations. Markets did not move a huge amount on the news with many speculating that the rally in oil markets has helped to offset some of the negativity from this unemployment number. The realisation that this loss was incurred before the social distancing measures were enacted in the US has led to speculation that the worse is yet to come with some predicting the number will stretch into the millions.