International gold prices remain stable, waiting for non-agricultural reports; the job market urgently needs to be relieved of a dilemma

On Thursday (September 2), international gold prices remained stable, and investors basically held a wait-and-see attitude, waiting for the release of US non-agricultural employment data tomorrow. The data is considered critical to the Fed's reduction schedule. The increase in private employment in the United States announced overnight fell short of expectations.

At GMT+8 16:19, spot gold rose by 0.03% to US$1814.53 per ounce; the main COMEX gold contract rose by 1817.0% to US$ per ounce; the US dollar index fell 0.06% to 92.452.


The August non-agricultural employment data in the United States will be released on Friday (September 3). The interviewed economists’ median forecast of changes in non-agricultural employment in the United States in August is an increase of 748,000.

Fed Chairman Powell said last week that the recovery of the labor market will determine when the Fed begins to cut asset purchases. Gold is considered a tool to hedge against inflation and currency devaluation, and large-scale stimulus measures have caused inflation.

ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes said: “The market is waiting for the release of salary data to obtain some guidance on how to set inflation expectations in the end. We still expect CPI growth to remain relatively high, so for the rest of the year Over time, this will slowly push up inflation expectations...the price of gold may therefore be pushed up."

Childcare centers across the United States are fully staffed for the back-to-school season—trying to find enough qualified educators. The owner of the management center complained that there were more employee turnovers, and fewer people applied for vacant positions than usual. Some schools have reduced the planned enrollment and shortened working hours.

The shortage of staff further limits the childcare options for parents eager to return to work. It also created more obstacles for working mothers. When schools implemented online teaching and childcare centers were closed due to the pandemic, they were disproportionately squeezed out of the labor market.

Economists say that without reliable childcare services, it will be more difficult for parents to restore a stable work schedule, which may slow the recovery of the labor market. Many people had predicted that with the reopening of schools this fall, the recovery of the labor market would be impacted. The enhanced unemployment and employment measures will expire in September, and the number of unemployed may increase.

A study released by the Atlanta Federal Reserve on Wednesday found that before the pandemic, women with children under the age of 6 accounted for 10% of the workforce, but 22% of them lost their jobs during the crisis. Atlanta Fed Research Fellow M. Melinda Pitts wrote in the report that the ability to find quality childcare services "may be a decisive factor affecting the employment of working mothers."