A cooldown but not a crash: That’s roughly the picture economists expect the latest government data to paint — again — of the American labor market. The June jobs report, set for release at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is expected to show employers added about 200,000 nonfarm jobs. That would be fewer than the 272,000 roles that were added the month before in a surprisingly strong report that defied long-running forecasts of a sharper pullback in hiring. Instead, the U.
'While firing rates remain low, if you do unfortunately lose your job it is becoming much harder to find a new position,' ING global financial group Chief Economist James Knightley said in a note to clients. Beyond the labor market, the Institute for Supply Management reported this week what Knightley called a 'truly awful' Purchasing Managers Index survey for June. The figure dropped to 48.8 — below a forecast 52.7 and a significant drop from the 53.8 previous reading.