When Friday’s employment report indicated that just 130,000 jobs had been added to the August workforce and that 25,000 of those were census workers, there were sighs of disappointment from those who expected to see better numbers.

After all, 2019 job growth had been averaging 158,000 a month, and 2018’s average monthly gains had registered 223,000. There were also mutterings about the likelihood of a recession in the year ahead, an ongoing concern that had been stoked a few days earlier by one manufacturing index moving to negative growth territory for the first time since January 2016.