The US labour market surveys for August took centre stage: whilst the 1.37mn rise in non-farm payrolls was roughly as expected, the household survey data was tremendously strong: employment rose 3.76mn, the unemployment rate fell 1.8pps to 8.4%, labour participation rose 0.3pps to 61.7%, unemployment fell 2.79mn.
Not just that, for those at work average weekly hours ticked up, and are now running longer than this time last year; and hourly wages rose 0.4% mom, with the sharpest rises in manufacturing and leisure/hospitality.
These numbers describe an economy showing a conspicuously broad and robust recovery from the coronavirus shutdown - and its a sharp contrast with what we're seeing in Europe.
