Bitcoin Price Goes Wild Again as US Jobs Report Smashes Expectations

Bitcoin is on the move again after the release of the US jobs report for October, which was well above what experts anticipated. The reading, published minutes ago, noted that the US economy added 165,000 jobs in October, while expectations were around 59,000, according to CNBC.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, which is below expectations of 4.2%. Moreover, data for September’s report was also revised higher by 31,000 jobs.

A stronger-than-expected reading is typically bearish for risk-on assets because it shows that the US Federal Reserve can maintain tighter monetary policy without breaking the economy.

As such, it’s no real surprise that BTC’s immediate price reaction was a major leg down, dumping from $76,000 to $75,200 before erasing almost all losses. The asset 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.

The asset’s price reaction to the 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 earlier today, 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, before adding:

“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.”