"The Fed is certainly going to want to get more information before they make this move, particularly given how violent the financial-market reaction has been to tapering"
- Julia Coronado, New York-based chief economist for North America at BNP Paribas and a former Fed economist
A fresh data from the U.S. labour market was unveiled on Friday, reflecting improvement in the economy, while businesses are being deliberate in their hiring as they are waiting for a pickup in demand. The U.S. Labor Department said the overall jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 7.3% from 7.4% a month earlier, hitting the lowest since December 2008, however, not due to solid gains in hiring, but as more people left the workforce. Figures also showed the economy added less non-farm payrolls as it was initially expected creating just 169,000 working places, down from the estimated 180,000, however, strongly higher from July's downwardly revised 104,000. This figure is line with the average monthly growth of 184,000 seen over the last 12 months. Furthermore, the number of people struggling with long-term unemployment, or which are looking for a job for more than 27 weeks, remained unchanged at 4.3 million, representing 37.9% of the unemployed. Reports from the labour market are one of the most closely watched U.S. economic indicators, and the latest data may play the key role in Bernanke's decision during monthly FOMC meeting, scheduled on September 18. However, the mediocre jobs report can weigh on the argument the world's largest economy is not yet robust enough to start withdrawing the stimulus programme. Already, amid growing anticipation of September 18 mortgage rates have risen sharply, while the demand for greenback soared.
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