The Day at a Glance | December 3 2021

The Top

*Employment figures in the United States disappoint (210k vs 500k e.).

*Mexican Senate ratifies Victoria Rodríguez Ceja as a member of Mexico`s Central Bank`s Governing Board starting in 2022.

*Lagarde reiterated that an increase in interest rates is unlikely in 2022, but assured that the ECB will act if necessary.

*U.S. Senate approves government funding through February 18th, 2022 to avoid a shutdown this weekend.

*China prepares reducing reserve requirements in the banking sector to back small businesses.

*Retail sales in Europe increase in line with expectations during October (0.2% monthly, 1.4% annual).

Economic environment

Slow recovery in the U.S. labor market during November. The United States economy created 210 thousand new jobs in November, figure way below what markets expected (500 thousand e.). Nevertheless, September (+67 thousand to 379 thousand) and October`s (+15 thousand to 546 thousand) figures were revised upwards. The largest amount of jobs were created among professional services (90 thousand), consulting services (12 thousand) and administration and waste management (42 thousand), which confirms an overall recovery in employment that has stopped occurring only among the sectors that were most affected by the pandemic. The most positive piece of news is that the unemployment rate decreased to 4.2% (its lowest level since February 2020); and the participation rate increased to 61.8%. On average, the increase in employment has been 550 thousand new jobs every month during 2021, and there are still 3.9 million jobs to be created before pre-pandemic levels are reached. Average hourly wages increased 0.3% during the month (vs 0.4% e.) and logged a 4.8% annual increase (vs 5% e.). The data doesn’t substantially modify any expectations of a faster process of monetary normalization on behalf of the FED, especially due to the positive increase in the participation rate, which suggests that more people have actively started looking for jobs.