Following the latest data on employment in the United States, the Federal Reserve may have no other choice but to “engineer” a recession, a UNC professor says.
Friday’s US jobs report will put pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even further, even after the fourth consecutive 75-basis point increase that was announced on Wednesday.
That’s according to Christian Lundblad, senior associate dean for faculty and research & the Richard “Dick” Levin distinguished professor of finance at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, who spoke at a virtual briefing on Friday morning.
“There’s every reason to imagine that the Fed will continue to move,” said Lundblad. “Not only were we surprised at the number of jobs created, we received an upward revision.”
The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the U.S. economy added 261,000 jobs in October, much higher than expectations. Further, the September 2022 figures were revised upwards, from 263,000 jobs added to 315,000 added jobs to the economy.
Combined, that’s 123,000 more jobs than were expected.
“We’re continuing to see pretty healthy job growth,” said Lundblad. “Isolated to some sectors more than others.”
Despite headlines coming from Twitter and other technology companies that announced layoffs this week, Lundblad noted that “this looks like a pretty healthy jobs report.
