About this episode
The US employment data yesterday raised several red flags. Existing data quality problems were compounded by the government shutdown. Looking at year-to-date trends, the total number of jobs in the US has risen, but at a slower pace than in the past four years. Manufacturing jobs have continued to fall. Average hourly earnings are not the same thing as wage or income growth, but the pace has slowed and may be overtaken by inflation in the coming months.