The U.S. dollar is rising — but investors are scared for one simple reason … after April jobs report released

The U.S. dollar is rising — but investors are scared for one simple reason … after April jobs report released

The U.S. dollar is continuing to perform well as job gains looked strong in April, but economists are quite worried that trouble is ahead of the U.S. economy.

The U.S. dollar is again posting strong gains against the euro thanks to a jobs report that continued to show a solid economic growth, which further depresses the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will raise rates anytime soon.

The jobs report showed that the economy added 223,000 jobs in the month of April, a strong rebound after gaining only 85,000 jobs in March, a report that initially caused investors to raise question marks about the U.S. economy, according to media reports.

The report from the Labor Department was about in line with what investors were inspecting.

The unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent, which is the lowest point it had been in seven years — the entire length of the Great Recession — and there were only modest signs that the labor market was tightening up.

Although investors had initially expected a hike in the interest rates in June, those rates are not likely to rise until later this year despite the strong economic indicators as inflation remains somewhat low. The Fed had kept rates at zero since late 2008 as it seeks to encourage the U.S. economy to rebound, and once it feels that the economy is on track, it will raise those rates in order to keep inflation in check.

Although it was a good jobs report, analysts believe it wasn’t a great jobs report either, which does bolster the case that interest rates should stay low until much later this year until June.

The upset victory by Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives in Britain has bolstered the pound, thanks to the Conservatives’ reputation as being a more pro-business party. It also adds stability to the country by not causing a complete overhaul of the political landscape, further encouraging investors.

The job market rebound eased fears that the economy could be on the brink of slowing down again after stalling during the winter.

But while it was a good sign that employers are continuing to add to payrolls, one worrying factor continues to vex investors: a lack of an improvement in overall pay.

Economists are calling the lack of growth in wages the missing piece in the recovery equation. Analysts expected the economy to rebound from the disappointing showing in March, but the strong growth in wages they were hoping to see wasn’t there.

Job growth has average 243,000 new jobs each month since the start of 2014, but wage growth hasn’t done much to wow observers. Economists were expecting that pay increases were coming as the unemployment rate dipped, but the absence of those results is starting to become frustrating to U.S. workers and could have a major impact on the upcoming 2016 presidential campaign.

Economists were estimating that average hourly earnings would advance 0.2 percent or perhaps even more in April, which would help kickstart wage gains that have remained flat. But instead, they only grew 0.1 percent, and the annual gain has been just 2.2 percent, which has cancelled out some of the positive effects of the job growth.

Conservatives are likely to use this as fodder during the 2016 campaign to attack President Obama’s policies, arguing that the recovery has been a false one and that workers are still struggling in a recession-like atmosphere even though investors on Wall Street are happy and corporations are posting profits.

The jobs report was good news for the stock market, with stocks climbing 267 points to 18,191 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said that investors are been too quick to jump into an expensive stock market, which caused some nervousness among investors, but the April job report calmed some of those worries.

A big boost in construction jobs helped that report, and bolstered analysts who said that the poor March performance had to do with winter economic data when construction is depressed, and in reality job growth would continue on track.

So essentially, while the jobs report was good news, wage growth remains stagnant and investors are wondering when it will start to pick up. Until then, worries will persist about the true strength of the U.S. economy, and whether a slowdown is ahead if U.S. consumers can’t pick up their spending. In the meantime, the Federal Reserve will be watching closely, and is likely to avoid raising interest rates until later this year.

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