US Jobs Report Disappoints, Focus Shifts to Upcoming Inflation Data

The US jobs report for July was disappointing, with non-farm payrolls rising by just 23,000. This marked a sharp slowdown from June's downwardly revised gain of 20,000, and represented the weakest reading since February's decline.

The picture was made worse by substantial revisions to prior months. May payroll growth was cut to 63,000 from an initially reported 129,000, while June's figure was lowered to 20,000 from 57,000. This removed a further 103,000 jobs from previously published estimates.

Despite the soft payroll numbers, the headline unemployment rate unexpectedly edged lower to 4.1% from 4.2%. However, this was due to another drop in the labour force participation rate, which fell to 61.4%, its lowest in more than five years.