UK firms say 'the hard work on Brexit starts now' – business live

Britain’s business leaders express relief on Brexit progress but urge the government to make swift progress on a trade deal with the EUBrexit deal: ‘sufficient progress’ made after overnight talks on Irish borderTusk says Brexit transition period is next hurdle – live updatesUS jobs report stronger than expected in October, but wages disappoint 2.06pm GMT The dollar is dipping after the weaker than expected US wage growth outweighed the stronger jobs figures.Traders are selling the US Dollar after a strong jobs report is by weak wage growth. pic.twitter.com/XO02wgTDt5For markets, a further disappointment in wage growth will be the key takeaway from today’s data. November’s growth in average hourly earnings came in below consensus at 0.2%, following a downward revision to October’s figure, although it’s still probably worth taking these numbers with a pinch of salt. Back in September, the job losses from the hurricanes were highly concentrated in low-wage sectors, and taking them temporarily out of the sample artificially boosted the average level of pay. November’s disappointment could simply be a further correction to this blip.A similar logic can probably be applied to the payrolls numbers. On the face of it, a 228,000 increase in jobs during November looks good, but at least some of this is probably down to people returning to work after the disruption. Either way though, policymakers are less bothered by jobs growth these days – they know that the rate of employment growth should be expected to slow as the remaining slack in the economy erodes. 2.01pm GMT A stronger than expected rise in non-farm payrolls has reinforced expectations that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next week. Paul Ashwell, chief US economist at Capital Economics, gives his view: The slightly bigger than expected 228,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in November all but guarantees another 25 basis point interest rate hike by the Fed next week, particularly with the unemployment rate unchanged at an unusually low 4.1%. Continue reading…
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