“Job seekers are out in the cold this summer. Especially the ones who have been hunting for a while,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Beyond the headline-grabbing top-line numbers in the jobs report for July was another striking piece of data: The number of people unemployed for at least 27 weeks topped 1.8 million, the highest level since 2017, not counting the pandemic’s unemployment surge. The median length of unemployment in the U.S. has also ticked up, from a seasonally adjusted 9.5 weeks in July 2024 to 10.2 weeks last month.”

“For months, the U.S. economy appeared to be weathering the disruptive effects of President Donald Trump’s trade and immigration policies,” the Washington Post reports.

“But over the course of 72 hours, that sunny outlook darkened, as the latest government data this week showed the president’s revolutionary remaking of the world’s largest economy had hit a snag.”

“Friday’s disappointing jobs report revealed a labor market that is much weaker than either the White House or Federal Reserve understood. Inflation, the voter irritant that helped return Trump to the Oval Office, is proving newly stubborn. And consumers are growing more cautious with their spending.”

Politico: “A half-dozen leaders from financial firms, corporations and trade groups said in interviews that the series of tariff rates Trump unveiled Thursday night were steeper than they had expected, and they worry that the dizzying kaleidoscope of policies he’s applying to different countries will complicate global commerce. The economy is already showing cracks, with the job market slowing and stocks tumbling Friday.”

“Many business leaders fear that this week’s worrying economic numbers are only the beginning of a more sustained downturn.”