April Jobs-Growth Pace Suggests Sooner Rate Hikes

        15:50 EDT - The Atlanta Fed's job calculator suggests if the economy can continue to add jobs around the pace seen in April, the Fed's definition of full employment could be reached within six months. While there's always a lot of uncertainty around the hiring outlook, this seemingly positive development could create problems for Fed officials who mostly agree they'll start raising interest rates sometime in mid-2015. According to the calculator, adding an average of 239k jobs each month for six months will move the unemployment rate to 5.6%, which hits the top end of the Fed's estimate of full employment. (michael.derby@wsj.com)
        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        May 02, 2014 15:50 ET (19:50 GMT)