Why do we have both an establishment survey and a household survey if we cherry pick the data to look at? The headline number was simply awesome. 272k jobs and 229k in the private sector, both beating expectations (and an even lower “whisper” number). Only 15k of downward revisions to the prior month. Unequivocally strong headline jobs. Monthly and annual earnings ticked higher and were above expectations, and last month’s annual level was also bumped up. This signals that potential inflationary pressures remain and may even be rebounding. Then things get “weird.” The unemployment rate ticked up to 4%. That ... NFP Instant Reaction – It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times