On Friday, the September labor report is released. Economists from Econoday expect nonfarm payrolls to rise by 203,000, ahead of the 173,000 created in August. Michelle Meyer, deputy head of U.S. economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects the economy to add 190,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 5.1 percent. ‘If we get a report in line with the consensus, I think that would show that the economy is continuing to add jobs,’ she said in an interview. ‘It’s the healing we’d like to see at this point in the [economic] recovery.’ Meyer said a key part of the report will be wages, which have remained tepid at best. The forthcoming jobs report, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, will also include the September reading on average hourly earnings. ‘We’re looking for a 0.2 percent month over month increase,’ she said. ‘That allows the year-over-year rate to pick up a bit to 2.4 percent. While that’s very subdued wage growth, perhaps it’s showing some very early signs that things are starting to move in the right direction.’ Finally, the September report will be a key factor for the Federal Reserve’s looming normalization of policy, also known as the small hike of short term interest rates that the central bank is expected to make sometime this year. The Fed has long indicated that its rate hike decisions are based on data.
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