If there\u2019s one thing an economy\u2019s supposed to do, it\u2019s add jobs. At least enough to absorb folks joining and re-joining the workforce \u2014 from school, raising kids, and (at least in former times) immigration.<\/p>\n
So a -23,000 month, like the U.S. economy had in July<\/a>, is definitely going in the wrong direction. In fact, over the past three months, with those big downward revisions, job creation has averaged just 20,000 a month, which is pretty anemic.<\/p>\n Diving deeper into these signs of mediocrity, July saw job losses in several sectors: local government down 57,000, leisure and hospitality down 40,000, finance down 14,000, retail down more than 19,000.<\/p>\n The sector that lost the most jobs in July was local government education. That category is mostly K-12 public school roles, which were down almost 50,000.<\/p>\n Such a sharp drop could be a flaw in \u201cseasonal adjustment,\u201d said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. She said many teachers are laid off in the summer. <\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, local education employment has fallen every month since March,\u201d Gould said \u2014 as in, when school is still in session. \u201cWe know that there have been funding cuts at the Department of Education. Worse budget cuts may be coming, and that could cause even more uncertainty about hiring or keeping teachers on staff.\u201d<\/p>\n Financial services, another job-loser, is down 114,000 in the last year. This is partly about the weak housing market and high mortgage rates,<\/a> said Brian Bethune, a financial economist at Boston College. <\/p>\n \u201cMortgage activity has slowed to a standstill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Also at risk are back-office jobs in areas like compliance and fraud prevention, said Nationwide Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic. <\/p>\n \u201cWe do see AI having some impact, if they\u2019re doing a job that can be automated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Bostjancic pointed to another sector that lost jobs in both June and July: leisure and hospitality. <\/p>\n