Your Evening Briefing: Even Omicron Can’t Stop U.S. Job Growth

U.S. employers extended a hiring spree last month despite a record spike in Covid-19 infections and related business closures, with surging wages adding further pressure on the Fed to quickly raise interest rates. The data reinforce Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s description last week of the labor market as “strong.” The jobs report is also good news for the White House, which had been tempering expectations out of concern that the omicron variant would negatively affect the numbers. “This seals the deal for a March hike,” said Ryan Sweet, head of monetary policy research at Moody’s Analytics, adding that the chance of a half-point increase remains unlikely. “The Fed is going to take away from this that the economy is barreling toward full employment and this will make it more difficult for them to gracefully engineer a soft landing.”

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.