On the August Jobs Report, and the Wage Conundrum

A headline beat was really a miss, thanks to large downward revisions that reversed previous upward revisions. It was a middle-of-the-road jobs report, extraordinary for the tenth year of an expansion. The headline earnings growth of 2.9% jump, the best in this expansion, is somewhat illusory thanks to a weak month one year ago rolling of. Monthly earnings growth was not exceptional. The conundrum of low wage growth remains, with some new evidence from the Atlanta Fed's microdata pointing to poor economic dynamism. Nothing here ought to move the Fed toward more hawkishness.