MB Capital

Sainsbury’s is lifting its basic rate of pay to at least £10 an hour as part of a £100m investment aimed at retaining staff.

The 5.3pc rise, which comes into effect in March and also applies to Argos workers, takes the chain’s pay to above the National Real Living Wage.

Wall Street falters after weak jobs data

Wall Street is fluctuating this afternoon after the latest jobs data fell well short of expectations.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were little changed at the opening bell, while the Dow Jones fell 0.1pc.

US private payrolls increased by only 199,000 in December, though the unemployment rate also fell to 3.9pc.

More expert reaction: Jobs miss is a positive after Fed minutes

Marcus Bullus, director at MB Capital, argues the jobs figures could be a positive after hawkish minutes from the Federal Reserve earlier this week.

Following this line of thought there is a concern that the Fed may focus on the unemployment rate coming in lower than expected at 3.9pc to fuel more hawkish discussions at their next meeting, with fears of labour scarcity fuelling wage increases and inflation.

The disparity between the nonfarm payroll miss and the lower unemployment level could suggest that Americans are taking their futures in their own hands with more going self-employed but also it is worth remembering that sampling of households against businesses isn’t always perfect – hence the revisions we see with November non-farm payroll being revised upwards.

Creating jobs is building the economy from the ground up, which is why the nonfarm payroll release can have such an effect on the financial markets, but on this occasion it does feel more backwards looking because of omicron fears at the time coupled with Christmas.