Employment growth (USA) | Weekly Excerpt

Week of March 28 to April 1

A quiet week but a noisy Friday

Last week was very quiet until Friday, when statements from the U.S. Labor Department generated positive noise in the market, indicating a progress in employment growth figures in this country, but lower than expected.

At the same time, Germany recorded its highest inflation in 30 years in March, with consumer prices rising by as much as 7.3% over the previous year in March, according to the federal statistics agency "Destatis".

Mugs of interest

The figures are likely to increase pressure on the European Central Bank to raise interest rates to absorb the excess money supply causing prices to rise.

March nonfarm payrolls totaled 431,000 and below the 490,000 expected. It was the lowest increase in jobs since last September.

However, previous months have exceeded their expectations, meaning that while the recent report has fallen short of estimates, this has been more than offset by the 36,000 surplus jobs created in previous months.