The July jobs report should have been dedicated to the Hollywood classic, All About Eve where Bette Davis’ character Margo Channing warned partygoers, “Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy night.”
The same could be said of the labor market, which is slowing down faster than expected and putting the Federal Reserve’s much-desired “soft landing” in jeopardy.
In July, the economy produced 114,000 positions, shy of the 185,000 that analysts predicted and lower than the 2024 monthly average of 203,000.
Further evidence of the deterioration in the labor market was seen in wage growth, which decelerated to 3.6% from a year ago, lower than 3.9% in the previous month.
The unemployment rate increased from 4.1% to 4.3%, the highest level since October 2021. Notably, July marked the fourth consecutive month where the unemployment rate increased. Since 1960, every time we…