Reuters Survey: US job growth seen accelerating; unemployment rate steady

Reuters out with its latest survey of what the economists expect out of today’s US employment report due to be reported at 1230GMT.

Key findings:

The labor market report “will probably show that nonfarm payrolls increased by 179,000 jobs last month after gaining 138,000 in May.

The unemployment rate is forecast steady at a 16-year low of 4.3 percent. It has dropped five-tenths of a percentage point this year and matches the most recent Fed median forecast for 2017.

Economists say labor market buoyancy could also encourage the U.S. central bank to announce plans to start reducing its $4.2 trillion portfolio of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities in September.

Average hourly earnings are forecast increasing 0.3 percent in June after gaining 0.2 percent in May. That could lift the year-on-year increase in wages to 2.7 percent from 2.5 percent in May.

Manufacturing payrolls likely rebounded after factories shed 1,000 jobs in May. But employment in the automobile sector probably declined further as slowing sales and bloated inventories force manufacturers to cut back on production.”