US Employment due at 8:30 ET

Today’s Employment numbers are expected to show a gain of around 70,000 jobs.  The Unemployment Rate is expected to go up to 4.8% from 4.7% last month.   Average Hourly Earnings are expected to show a rise of 0.3% from 0.5%.   If there is a pre-market bias it would be for a number less than concensus.  Therefore a stronger than expected number could give the USD a boost.

Last month the survey showed an addition of 94,000 jobs.  Healthcare (+47,000 jobs), Leaisure and Hospitality (+32,000 jobs) Government (+20,000 jobs) and Trade, Transportation and Utilities (+20,000 jobs) were the positive industiries.  Manufacturing (-15,000 jobs, Construction (-10,000 jobs) and Financial Activity (0 job gains) were the industries which showed weakness.  With the meltdown in the financial sector, the expectations would be that this industry should show a decline this month (and in coming months) while the Housing and Manufacturing should continue to show slow growth.

The ADP survey released earlier this week, showed a gain of 40,000 jobs which translates into an expected gain of 65,000 (ADP does not include government jobs which adds approximately 25,000 jobs per month).