July Jobs Report, Staffing trends and AI news

Payrolls went negative in July. Temporary help went up. Not by much — 3,400 jobs. But that number did something no temp help print has done in 45 months. It put this industry into year-over-year growth for the first time since October 2022. Same week, the ISM manufacturing employment index crossed 50 for the first time in 33 months. Two multi-year losing streaks broke in the same seven days. Both of them in light industrial. In a report the headlines called bad. Here's what I think is happening. When employers stop hiring but haven't started firing, they don't stop needing the work done. They rent instead of buy. Right now, we're what they're renting. New episode is up. The July jobs report and the number under the headline that nobody put in a headline. The weekly tape that hit a new high and decelerated at the same time. Three earnings prints, including a margin trap that every growing firm should look at. And the Fed study that finally measured what AI has actually delivered. Plus one correction I owe an economist.