US: Low wage growth, unemployment finally falls - Nomura

April’s employment report of US showed steady employment growth, lower unemployment, but surprisingly weak wage growth, explains the research team at Nomura.

Key Quotes

“Nonfarm payroll employment increased 164k coupled with 30k in upward revisions, consistent with a labor market adding about 200k jobs per month. After drifting around 4.1% for the previous six months, the unemployment rate finally fell by 0.2pp to 3.9% in April. The most surprising top-line numbers in today’s report were wages: average hourly earnings (AHE) ticked up only 0.1% m-o-m in April, with negative revisions to March.”