"The economy is still adding more jobs than new entrants to the labor market," wrote Vanguard Global Chief Economist Joseph Davis and Senior International Economist Andrew Patterson.
Wage growth "remains well above levels the Fed would be comfortable with" in the fight to return inflation to the 2% target.
With job growth in prior months revised down by more than 100,000 jobs, the June jobs report is "a fairly soft print" with three-month average job gains now at 244,000 compared to more than 400,000 a year ago, said Omair Sharif of Inflation Insights.
But progress towards a more balanced labor market is coming "slowly, slowly...These are still healthy figures" even as the pace softens.
Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns, Nick Zieminski, Andrea Ricci and Chizu NomiyamaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons:
Joseph Davis, Andrew Patterson, Omair Sharif, Austan Goolsbee, Let's, Goolsbee, Jerome Powell, Powell, Howard Schneider, Dan Burns, Nick Zieminski, Andrea Ricci, Chizu
Organizations:
Federal Reserve, Vanguard Global, Senior, Fed, Chicago Fed, CNBC, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Labor Statistics, Thomson
Locations:
U.S