Heather Long

Hey, Kai.

Look, I thought it was a good report.

You know, 115,000 is double what was expected.

As you noted, the unemployment rate stayed steady.

And what really got me excited is we finally saw some hiring in an industry other than healthcare.

You know, we saw a big jump in...

Transportation and warehouse jobs, retail was up, a little bit of hospitality, construction and social assistance.

This wasn't a one-trick pony thing anymore.

I'm not saying everything was perfect.

It's still hard to get a job in the tech industry or finance.

There was a pretty big jump in people who could only find part-time work instead of full-time.

And of course, the big Achilles heel of the economy is finance.

Wage growth of 3.6% in the past year is getting wiped out by inflation and these surging gas prices.

But if you look where we were in 2025, when basically no jobs were getting added, to where we are in 2026, where we've had 76,000 jobs a month on average so far, things are looking better.

Well, thanks, I guess.

Steady is a good word.

You know, you've got to stabilize the patient before they can recover.

Well, I think you're right.

And I mean, I don't envy him because the reality, I keep calling it a split screen economy.

I know Greg has written about this as well.