US Employment data is robust

In Chapter 3 (Article 9) I focused on the key US economic release which appears at the start of each new month. This is the data on employment which is always published on the first Friday. Last week's data showed  that the US economy added an additional 163,000 new jobs in July. However, the same release showed a rise in unemployment from 8.2% to 8.3%. This latest economic release was generally more robust than had been expected. In the article I explain just why this is such a key factor for financial markets. Put simply the data has an enormous impact on the economic policy-makers in the US. Most significant changes in the Federal Reserve's interest rates can be linked to what happens to employment levels in the economy. The data is also reliable and very timely. You should try to get used to following the various economic data releases as they appear each month. As a starting point look out for the build-up to the next Employment release on the first Friday in September.