Resilient US economy defies predictions

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Monday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>And today we lead with news of a slight easing of labour market pressure in the US, but the long predicted recession still seems far away.</p><p>But first in the week ahead, it will get started slowly with the US currently on its long end-of-summer Labor Day weekend. We won't see them back in international financial markets until Wednesday, NZT. Then they will deliver their ISM Services PMI, factory order data, and foreign trade data. Elsewhere, Australia and Canada will announce interest rate decisions. Also, inflation rates will be released in Turkey, South Korea, the Philippines, Mexico, and Russia. GDP growth figures will be released for Australia, South Africa, and Switzerland. Additionally, we will get service sector PMI readings for China from their private Caixin series..</p><p>Over the weekend their August non-farm payroll report showed that American labour markets are still expanding although not as fast as previously.</p><p>The US economy <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" target="_blank"><strong>added +187,000 jobs in August</strong></a>, compared to the downwardly revised +157,000 in July and more than market expectations of +170,000. These are the headline, seasonally-adjusted changes. It was the third consecutive month with job gains falling below 200,000, indicating a gradual easing of American labour market conditions, largely attributed to the Federal Reserve's significant interest rate hikes aimed at cooling inflation. There is a downshift, but it is a smooth one - so far at least</p><p>However as regular readers know we also look at the original data and that rose +268,000 to 156.4 mln people on company payrolls, a new record high and up +3.0 mln from a year ago. Meanwhile there are 161.4 mln employed when you also account for the unincorporated self-em