What to Look Out for in Economic Data This Week (August 3-7)

This week's slate of economic reports will be centered on the labor market, beginning with Tuesday morning's release of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).

Job openings hit a two-year high in May, an encouraging sign in the current low-fire, low-hire environment. For June, economists expect job openings to be slightly lower month over month.

The big data point comes on Friday, though, with the release of the July jobs report.

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Economic reports we're watching:

Friday, August 7: Nonfarm payrolls report: The U.S. added much fewer jobs than expected in June. How worried should we be about July's results?

Read on to see the entire weekly economic calendar of the most important upcoming economic reports scheduled to be released in the next several days. At times, we provide expanded previews and recaps for select reports.

Please check back often. This economic calendar is updated regularly. Bolded reports are those considered more noteworthy. All reporting times are in Eastern Time.

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Monday (8/3)

Tuesday (8/4)

Wednesday (8/5)

Thursday (8/6)

Friday (8/7)

Did job growth rebound in July?

Shortly after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh took the podium following his first Fed meeting and said jobs data had "been moving in a good direction," the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report that showed the U.S. added just 57,000 new jobs in June, well below the 115,000 economists expected.

Additionally, job growth for April was revised down by 31,000, from +179,000 to +148,000, and May's figure was lowered by 43,000, from +172,000 to +129,000. That resulted in 74,000 fewer positions than previously reported.

Does this mean we should worry about the July jobs report, due out Friday morning? Maybe not.

"The June number was partly payback for strong growth in the previous three months, but it mostly suffered from a large decrease in employment at hotels and in food service," writes David Payne, staff economist at The Kiplinger Letter, in the Kiplinger jobs outlook. "This drop was also a partial pullback from an increase in May, and is probably related to changes in staff planning for World Cup attendees."

For July, Barclays economists believe the U.S. added 100,000 new jobs. "Barring revisions, this would place the 3-month moving average job gain at 95,000, well surpassing the breakeven pace," they write. The economists expect the unemployment rate to stay at 4.2%.

Reporting schedules are provided Forex Factory and MarketWatch.

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