And now the dovish Fed has another problem: the BLS reports that in July the US added 209K jobs, beating consensus expectations of a 180K print, while June was revised higher to 231K from 222K, even as May was revised modestly lower from 152K to 145K, for a net gain of +2,000 in the prior two months.

Nonfarm private payrolls rose 205k vs last month's 194k, and above the estimate of 180k, as the drop from durable manufacturing failed to materialize. In a familiar refrain, bars and restaurants hired the most workers of any sector in July.

Of course, keep in mind that the July gain was all in the seasonal adjustment factor: unadjusted, jobs declined by 1.308 million.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.5 hours in July. In manufacturing, the workweek was also unchanged at 40.9 hours, and overtime remained at 3.3 hours.

Adding to the hawkish pressure, wages rebounded from last month's 0.2%, rising 0.3% M/M, and 2.5% on a Y/Y basis, above the 2.4% expected, while average weekly earnings rose from 2.8% in line with the highest print over the past 7 years, and once again putting wage inflation back on the map. Hourly Earnings moved up at the fastest pace since the election last year as SouthBay research points out. On an annual basis, they have moderated from the 2016 pace but remain close to cyclical highs.

The unemployment rate dropped from 4.4% to 4.3% as expected, while the participation rate rose from 62.8% to 62.9%, as the number of workers out of the labor force declined by 156K to 94.657 million.





That said, the gap between the unemployment rate and the unemployment to population ratio remains wide.

Some more details from the report: