• From Axios:
"The U.S. labor market continues to add jobs at a strong pace: Payrolls rose by 236,000 in March, while the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5%, the lowest level in over a half-century, the Labor Department said on Friday.
"Why it matters: Employers still have plenty of demand for workers, despite aggressive efforts from the Federal Reserve to cool off the economy."
The Associated Press adds that "at the same time, some of the details of Friday’s report from the Labor Department raised the possibility that inflationary pressures might be easing and that the Fed might soon decide to pause its rate hikes. Average hourly wages in March were up 4.2% from 12 month earlier, down sharply from a 4.6% year-over-year increase in February."
And, "In another sign that might reassure the Fed’s inflation fighters, a substantial 480,000 Americans began looking for work in March. Typically, the bigger the supply of job seekers, the less pressure employers feel to raise wages. The result is often an easing of inflation pressures."
