While the Fed is digesting what the X-13 Arima seasonally adjusted payrolls number means for the future of US interest rates, the devastation of the US labor force continues.
In what was an "modestly" unpleasant July payrolls report, yet somewhat better than June's flagrant disappointment, the fact is that the number of Americans not in the labor force rose once again, this time by 144,000 to a record 93,770,000 million, with the result a participation rate of 62.6% which remains at a level more indicative of the September 1977 economy.
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End result: with the civilian employment to population ratio flat from last month's 59.3%, one can once again easily discren on the chart below why there will be no broad wage growth any time soon, which will merely allow the Fed to engage in its failed policies for a long, long time, or - at worst - hike by 25 bps just so it can, like BOJ in 2000 and the ECB in 2011, cut promptly thereafter and/or unleash QE4.
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