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America is in a serious jobs slump

Employment gains were so weak in the July jobs report that President Donald Trump fired the head of the bureau charged with collecting the data, baselessly claiming it was rigged.

In addition to being less dynamic, the job market has become increasingly reliant upon a select few industries — primarily health care, with leisure and hospitality to a lesser extent — to drive overall employment growth. Job openings fell the most in health care and social assistance in July and also dipped somewhat in leisure and hospitality, Wednesday’s data showed. Openings picked up the most in wholesale trade, construction and the federal government (where areas such as immigration enforcement are on a hiring spree while other agencies are trying to claw back workers after the Trump administration’s deep workforce cuts).

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