On the downside, information services continued to struggle, cutting 8K more jobs, the eleventh straight monthly decline during which 75K jobs have been eliminated. Government also lost 9K jobs, almost all of which came at the state and local levels.
The 33K decline in job growth in August versus July was largely due to much less hiring in leisure and hospitality services and healthcare. These slowdowns came after big spikes in certain areas, suggesting the weakness in August was payback for those recent jumps.
Average hourly earnings rose just 0.1% and were up 2.5% from a year ago for the fifth straight month. With inflation cooling recently, real wage growth has rebounded slightly but remains fairly weak at just 0.8%.
Today’s weak jobs report, combined with weak inflation, rising tensions with North Korea and the impacts of natural disasters, suggests the Fed will almost certainly not raise interest rates any time soon.