Payrolls seen climbing 298,000; hourly wages forecast up 5.3%

Data follow mostly firmer recent readings on labor market

The hotly anticipated US jobs report has the potential to tip the scales toward a third jumbo-sized hike in interest rates later this month after a wave of data that point to a resilient consumer and high labor demand.

Friday’s report is one of the last marquee releases Fed officials will have in hand before the mid-September policy meeting to help them decipher a complex economic and inflationary puzzle.

Forecasts call for a healthy, yet more moderate 298,000 gain in August payrolls and for the unemployment rate to hold steady at 3.5%, matching the lowest in five decades. Solid wage growth is also expected amid a persistent mismatch between labor demand and supply.

Such figures, in conjunction with a blowout July employment print, improving consumer sentiment figures and a surprise pickup in job openings, could be enough to push the Fed to raise borrowing costs by 75 basis points, extending the steepest interest-rate hikes in a generation to curb an inflation surge.

“In the context of all those data, this report becomes very important,” said Anna Wong, chief US economist at Bloomberg Economics. It could “put a stamp of confirmation” on the trend the other data have been showing -- that the economy is very resilient.

Fresh data out Thursday suggest demand for labor continues to be healthy. Initial applications for unemployment benefits dropped for a third week to a two-month low, according to Labor Department data