Scan the topline numbers of this month’s jobs report, and you’ll wind up with two wildly different impressions.
The first – that the economy lost 23,000 jobs in July – is bad news. We expected a gain of 95,000 jobs and sank into the red instead.
Then there’s the second figure: a 4.1% unemployment rate, down from 4.2% in June. Historically, that’s quite low. And it reflects a market that’s stable for most people who are looking for or already in jobs.
What’s going on? My inbox quickly filled with answers: The jobs report was “bleak.” It was “shocking.” The labor market was “on life support.” Others were more hopeful, with takes that boiled down to “low hire, low fire.”
So which story about this economic moment is true?
