US Adds 315,000 Jobs In August, Clearing The Path For Another Aggressive Interest Rate Hike

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY traded higher Friday morning after the Labor Department reported strong U.S. jobs market numbers from August.

What Happened: The U.S. added 315,000 jobs last month, beating average economist estimates of 298,000 jobs. 

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the U.S. unemployment rate at 3.7%, missing the 3.5% level economists had projected. The labor participation rate increased 0.3% to 62.4%, compared to the 63.4% pre-pandemic rate in February 2020.

Wages were up 5.2% year-over-year and increased 0.3% from July. The professional and business services industry led the job creation in August, adding 68,000 total positions. 

The Labor Department also revised June's total job growth lower by 105,000 jobs to +293,000 and July's job growth lower by 2,000 jobs to +526,000. The combined revisions totaled 107,000 fewer jobs.

Why It Matters: The Federal Reserve is paying close attention to the jobs market as the central bank aims to cool the hottest inflation numbers in more than 40 years.

The Fed hiked interest rates by 75 basis points for the second consecutive month in July, bringing its target fed funds rate up to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%.

Consumer sentiment continues to improve and the new labor data follows blowout July employment numbers, as well as a surprise jump in job openings. 

Friday's strong jobs report could confirm recent indicators and signal the Fed will hike rates another 0.75% in its next meeting in mid-September. 

Related Link: Friday's Jobs Report Could Rock Your Portfolio: If It's Bad, It Might Just Be Good

SPY Price Action: The SPDR S&P 500 was trading 0.85% higher at $399.79 premarket Friday. 

Photo: Flazingo Photos from Flickr.