U.S. jobs slow, Fed meeting set
U.S. payroll growth cooled to about 50,000 in March and unemployment moved into a roughly 4.3–4.4% range, feeding uncertainty about near‑term policy. The Federal Reserve has a closed board meeting scheduled for April 15 even as futures put a high probability on no immediate move at the April 28–29 policy meeting. ((financialcontent.com), federalreserve.gov)
U.S. hiring slowed in March, and the next Federal Reserve milestone is a closed Board meeting on Wednesday, April 15. (bls.gov, federalreserve.gov) The Labor Department said employers added 178,000 jobs in March, down from 241,000 in February, while the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent. Health care, construction, and transportation and warehousing added jobs, and federal government employment kept falling. (bls.gov) The April 15 session is not the rate-setting meeting. The Federal Reserve’s official calendar shows the next regular Federal Open Market Committee meeting on April 28-29, with policy statements and minutes tied to those scheduled meetings. (federalreserve.gov, federalreserve.gov) The Board’s notice says Wednesday’s closed meeting will cover a “Periodic Briefing and Discussion on Financial Markets, Institutions, and Infrastructure.” The notice also says a final announcement of matters considered will be posted after the meeting. (federalreserve.gov) That distinction matters because the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee are not the same body. The Federal Open Market Committee is the group that sets the federal funds rate at its eight scheduled meetings each year. (federalreserve.gov) Markets still treat futures tied to the federal funds rate as a read on what traders expect from those policy meetings. CME Group says its FedWatch tool translates 30-Day Fed Funds futures prices into probabilities for upcoming Federal Open Market Committee outcomes. (cmegroup.com, cmegroup.com) March’s jobs report did not show a collapse in hiring, but it did show a cooler pace than February. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also said real average hourly earnings fell 0.6 percent in March, a sign workers’ pay lost ground after inflation. (bls.gov, bls.gov) The Federal Reserve released updated economic projections after its March 17-18 meeting, and minutes from that meeting were published on April 8. Those documents are the latest official window into how policymakers were weighing growth, inflation, and rates before the April calendar turned. (federalreserve.gov, federalreserve.gov) The next hard date is April 28-29, when the Federal Open Market Committee meets again. Between now and then, investors will parse labor data, inflation reports, and anything the Federal Reserve says after Wednesday’s closed Board session. (federalreserve.gov, federalreserve.gov)
