The payrolls disappointment
The July nonfarm payrolls report was a clear miss. Instead of the 85,000 job gain economists expected, payrolls fell by 23,000. To make matters worse, revisions to May and June shaved off another 103,000 jobs, meaning the three-month average is now firmly negative. The unemployment rate did drop to 4.1%, but that's not because more people found work. The labor force shrank by 264,000 people, pushing the participation rate down to 61.4% — the lowest it's been in nearly five and a half years. That's a sign of workers dropping out, not a healthy job market.
