Weak jobs report sends stocks tumbling, but what’s really happening in the labor market?

The recent jobs report showed a softer-than-expected labor market. Global markets subsequently tanked — with echoes of Black Monday. But was the jobs report really that bad?

“I feel like the market took the Friday jobs report as an opportunity to self correct about a couple different things,” Northeastern University labor economist Alicia Modestino says. “So I think that’s why we’re seeing this have a little bit more legs than just a one-time correction to the labor market, because they’re baking in a few other things.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 114,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3% — its highest level since October 2021. Economists had expected that 175,000 new jobs would be created, according to FactSet, and the unemployment rate was forecast to remain at 4.1%. U.S. stocks subsequently skidded, with the S&P 500 falling 1.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropping 2.4% that afternoon. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index had its biggest one-day loss since Black Monday in 1987, dropping more than 12%. 

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