July’s report ​suggests that pockets of weakness in the labor market are starting to take hold. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2%.

U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs last month and Labor Department revisions showed that hiring was much weaker than previously reported in May and June. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%. The unexpectedly weak report raises questions about the health of the job market and the economy as President Donald Trump pushes

Surprisingly weak July hiring data released on Friday highlighted a fractious Federal Reserve debate over whether the central bank should have cut interest rates when it met this week, as it offered some support to those who’d favored an easing in borrowing costs.

If you look at the labor market, what you see is, by many, many statistics, the labor market is kind of still in balance,” Powell said. While demand for workers is slowing, t

"With economic growth slowing this year and signs of a less dynamic labor market, I saw it as appropriate to begin gradually moving our moderately restrictive policy stance toward a neutral setting," Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said in a statement.