Bitcoin experienced sharp price swings on Friday following the release of the US jobs report for October, which showed job growth well above economist forecasts. According to CNBC, the US economy added 165,000 jobs in October, while expectations were around 59,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, below expectations of 4.2%. Additionally, data for September’s report was revised higher by 31,000 jobs.
A stronger-than-expected reading is typically bearish for risk-on assets because it suggests the US Federal Reserve can maintain tighter monetary policy without breaking the economy. As such, Bitcoin’s immediate reaction was a major leg down, dumping from $76,000 to $75,200 before erasing almost all losses.
The asset had already plunged hard yesterday after the post-election rally, going from $81,000 to a multi-month low of $75,100 before recovering slightly to $76,000. Bitcoin’s price reaction to jobs reports has been quite intense in the past several months. It tanked after the August reading but jumped hard after the September report went live.
Before the report was released, Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at the job site ZipRecruiter, said that the US wouldn’t need to add many jobs to the economy in the long term, as there are simply fewer people available to work. “An aging workforce is pushing a lot of people into retirement. We have had decades of low birth rates, meaning we don’t have a lot of people who are coming in to replace those retiring workers. And immigration is now down pretty significantly, which is reducing some of that prime-age employment,” she said.
