Opening line from BLS in the BLS jobs report
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000 in June, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in government, health care, social assistance, and construction."
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
A more typical headline reads"
June jobs report: US economy added 209,000 jobs in June as labor market cools
June jobs report: Economists expect slowing job additions, falling unemployment
Basically it’s a mix and can be reported a glass half-empty or glass half-full.
Did you celebrate when inflation dropped to only 6%?
When it comes to “monthly jobs added” anything above zero is positive, but
- the downward trend
- the fact that a large portion of jobs-added are part-time
leaves the media and the stock/investment community at large divided about whether this is good news or not.
More later
