Friday's jobs report was a weird one.
For one, the pace of job creation was much worse than expected. Secondly, there was a huge drop in the unemployment rate. Also, there seems to have been a sizable impact from weather.
And then there's this: the healthcare industry actually shed jobs.
How weird is that? Just check out this chart showing the monthly change in healthcare jobs every month since 1990.
Healthcare has been SUCH a steady creator of employment in the US, this is only the second month where there was a decline. Even throughout the economic crisis, healthcare didn't once have a month of lost jobs. Whether this is the start of a trend or a blip is an interesting question to watch.
FRED