From the FXWW Chatroom: For the April employment report, scheduled for release on Friday, May 4, we expect nonfarm payrolls to rise by 175k on the month, in line with longer-run trends in monthly employment growth. We look for private payrolls to rise by 170k on the month and for government payrolls to increase by 5k. Recent months have seen volatility in the hiring data, with strong February hiring offset by weakness in March. We view the weaker reading on employment last month mainly as payback given that other labor market indicators, including data on initial claims, continue to point to healthy labor market conditions. For the U3 unemployment rate, we expect a one-tenth decline to 4.0%. The unemployment rate has gone five straight months without a drop, the longest such stretch during the recovery, and we expect it to resume its downward trend in the coming months. Elsewhere, we expect average hourly earnings to rise by 0.3% m/m and 2.8% y/y and average weekly hours to hold steady at 34.5.
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