What should we make of a weak payroll print alongside a lower unemployment rate? In this episode of Making Sense, Lauren Brice from the North America Rates Sales team sits down with Mike Feroli, Chief U.S. Economist at J.P. Morgan, to unpack the July jobs report and what it implies for U.S. growth momentum in 2026. They discuss why the headline miss may overstate weakness, what steady-but-low private hiring says about layoffs and labor market “dynamism” and how participation and wage growth are shifting the inflation outlook. The conversation also covers sector signals like leisure and hospitality, the latest read-through from JOLTS, where (if anywhere) AI is showing up in the hard data and what upcoming CPI reports could mean for the next Fed move.
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