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The strong U.S. jobs report in December 2023 boosted expectations of a soft landing. Total nonfarm payroll employment exceeded even the most optimistic Dow Jones forecasts, with 216,000 jobs created, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Also, the unemployment rate fell to a rate of 3.7%, defying the Dow Jones’s projected figure of 3.8%. This marked a 2.7 million total jobs gain in 2023 while recovering from the pandemic – despite lower figures compared to the previous year.
Analysts have interpreted the useful job figures as suggesting that the Federal Reserve’s revenue policy is about to end and that the U.S. hopefully will evade a possible recession in 2024. Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, shared with CNBC: “Jobs growth remains as resilient as ever, validating growing skepticism that the economy will be ready for policy rate cuts as early as March. Indeed, the recent run of labor market data generally points in one direction: strength.”