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The ECB got tough:

The European Central Bank made its largest-ever interest rate increase Thursday, following the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks in a global stampede of rapid rate hikes meant to snuff out the inflation that is squeezing consumers and pushing Europe toward recession.

The bank’s governing council raised its key benchmarks by an unprecedented three-quarters of a percentage point for the 19 countries that use the euro currency. The ECB usually moves rates by a quarter-point and had not raised its key bank lending rate by three-quarters of a point since the euro’s launch in 1999.

Bank President Christine Lagarde said the ECB would keep hiking rates “over the next several meetings” because “inflation remains far too high and is likely to stay above our target for an extended period.”

There was mixed news about jobs in Canada:

Canada’s unemployment rate shot up in August as the economy shed jobs for a third consecutive month, the latest sign of a chill spreading through the labour market.

Employment fell by 40,000 in August, taking total losses since May to 114,000, Statistics Canada said Friday in a report. The unemployment rate rose to 5.4 per cent from a record low of 4.9 per cent in July. Economists were expecting a far stronger month, with 15,000 jobs created and the jobless rate nudging up to 5 per cent.
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The job losses in August were largely concentrated among young people (15 to 24) and those approaching the traditional retirement age (55 to 64).
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The tight hiring conditions are reflected in wages, which are rising quickly. The average hourly wage rose 5.4 per cent in August from a year earlier, up from 5.2 per cent in June and July, although those figures lag the annual inflation rate of 7.6 per cent in July. The Bank of Canada monitors wages for signs they are driving up inflation and making its task of reining in consumer price growth more difficult.
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In Friday’s report, Statscan also found that more people are considering a change in jobs. Almost 12 per cent of permanent employees were planning to leave their jobs over the next year, about double the level in January. Among workers whose hourly wages were in the bottom 20 per cent, almost one in five were planning to leave their jobs.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 9th, 2022 at 8:58 pm and is filed under Market Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.