Happy NFP day! This from a Wall Street Journal piece based on the survey of economist ahead of the numbers,

In brief (full piece is here, its the WSJ so may be gated)

  1. Employers added an average of 171,000 jobs a month in 2017, down from 187,000 the year before... economists think hiring will rebound to around its recent trend.
  2. unemployment rate expected to remain 4.1% ... and a falling unemployment rate would reinforce (Fed) expectations that an ever-tighter labor market will boost inflation.
  3. wage gains softened last year after gaining traction in 2015 and 2016 ... Wage growth could pick up in the coming months, and minimum-wage increases in many states at the start of the year might help boost earnings for January.
  4. The jobless rate was 4.2% in December for high-school graduates who didn't attend college, double the 2.1% rate for college graduates but its lowest level in more than a decade.
  5. As is typical for the January jobs report, Friday's release will include a number of routine housekeeping changes from the Labor Department ... . New population controls mean the household-survey figures for the number of employed and unemployed Americans won't be directly comparable between December and January ... data will include an annual benchmark revision

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