Julys jobs report marked the 65th consecutive month of private sector employment growth and was widely interpreted as a signal the Federal Reserve will move to hike interest rates as soon as next month.
While such an increase would be a major vote of confidence in the strength of the economy, it would also have major implications for the average consumer.
In July, employers added 215,000 jobs to their payrolls, only 2,000 more than the average over the last six months. The unemployment rate held steady, at 5.3 percent, and average hourly earnings crept up only 0.2 percent.
This encouraging expansion anything above 200,000 is considered very solid, according to CNN was met with little fanfare. At some point, good news stops becoming news, as think tank Brookings Institute pointed out in an article titled July jobs report is like watching paint dry.
But this months data matters more than most because it comes only weeks before the Federal Reserve could announce its first rate hike in a decade. If you were Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, confronted with Septembers looming deadline, youd certainly prefer this type of economic data consistent, even a little boring to the alternative, wrote Neil Irwin of the The New York Times The Upshot blog.
The Federal Reserve has been prepared to hike the interest rate for months, according to economists at the Wall Street Journal, though not all experts agree a September hike is a certainty. Warren Buffett, in an interview on CNBC, said it will be difficult for the Fed to raise rates when central banks in Europe and China are keeping rates low to stimulate their economies, which would affect imports and exports.
Still, with steady growth, others say the Fed appears ready to make the jump.
The most significant impact such an increase would have on personal finances is that interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans would rise.
"People thinking of buying a house should act quickly to lock in today's low rates," said Dean Croushore, economics professor at the University of Richmond and former Philadelphia Fed economist, to CNN Money. Once the hike is made, consumption of goods like cars, boats and motor homes will drop because the cost of financing them will go up.
Savers, however, whose money has gained next to nothing since the financial crisis, will gain more interest on savings than before.
Travelers stand to benefit, too. When interest rates go up due to tightening monetary policy, the value of the dollar relative to other currencies tends to increase, Mark Thoma wrote for CBS.
While such an increase would be a major vote of confidence in the strength of the economy, it would also have major implications for the average consumer.
In July, employers added 215,000 jobs to their payrolls, only 2,000 more than the average over the last six months. The unemployment rate held steady, at 5.3 percent, and average hourly earnings crept up only 0.2 percent.
This encouraging expansion anything above 200,000 is considered very solid, according to CNN was met with little fanfare. At some point, good news stops becoming news, as think tank Brookings Institute pointed out in an article titled July jobs report is like watching paint dry.
But this months data matters more than most because it comes only weeks before the Federal Reserve could announce its first rate hike in a decade. If you were Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, confronted with Septembers looming deadline, youd certainly prefer this type of economic data consistent, even a little boring to the alternative, wrote Neil Irwin of the The New York Times The Upshot blog.
The Federal Reserve has been prepared to hike the interest rate for months, according to economists at the Wall Street Journal, though not all experts agree a September hike is a certainty. Warren Buffett, in an interview on CNBC, said it will be difficult for the Fed to raise rates when central banks in Europe and China are keeping rates low to stimulate their economies, which would affect imports and exports.
Still, with steady growth, others say the Fed appears ready to make the jump.
The most significant impact such an increase would have on personal finances is that interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans would rise.
"People thinking of buying a house should act quickly to lock in today's low rates," said Dean Croushore, economics professor at the University of Richmond and former Philadelphia Fed economist, to CNN Money. Once the hike is made, consumption of goods like cars, boats and motor homes will drop because the cost of financing them will go up.
Savers, however, whose money has gained next to nothing since the financial crisis, will gain more interest on savings than before.
Travelers stand to benefit, too. When interest rates go up due to tightening monetary policy, the value of the dollar relative to other currencies tends to increase, Mark Thoma wrote for CBS.