The Bureau of Labor Statistics may have had trouble adjusting the raw data to account for a later-than-normal start to summer vacation in some areas of the country, Pantheon Macroeconomics economists Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen said in a note. Regardless, “an unwind of June’s boost, either immediately or in September, is a sensible expectation.”
An assortment of cautionary signals emerged in the latest US jobs report, including weak and concentrated hiring in the private sector as well as a dip in hours worked that underscore a fragile job market.
Education Mirage
The addition of 147,000 jobs in June exceeded all but one estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. But the increase in employment was largely owed to a jump in state and local government education payrolls that a number of economists described as suspect.
