The Wall Street Journal Real Time Economics blog is downbeat on the NFP:
- Don’t get too concerned about the headline number being weaker than expectations — it’s well within the margin of error.
- Hourly wages fell by 2 cents on average — not a huge drop, but nonetheless a move in the wrong direction
- This month’s reports suggests a weakening outlook: companies trimmed employees’ hours, temporary jobs — which can be an indicator of permanent hiring in the future — grew at their slowest pace since last fall, the revisions were a bad sign — the government tends to underestimate growth during good times and overstate it during bad times, so downward revisions can suggest the labor market is weakening.
- Little confidence from workers
- The health sector added a mere 2,500 jobs in July, the fewest in a decade. Meanwhile, one of the most persistent drags on growth, the public sector, showed signs of stabilizing.
More details at the Wall Street Journal (ungated): Five Takeaways From Jobs Report
There’s also more here – various economists’ reactions to the jobs report: Economists React: Jobs Data Disappoint on Multiple Fronts (again, non-gated)