A revised report from the Labor Department earlier that day showed the economy created far fewer jobs than previously thought, revising downward the agency’s nonfarm payroll data for 12 months through March by 911,000 jobs.
“I think the economy is weakening,” Dimon told CNBC’s “Halftime Report.” “Whether it’s on the way to recession or just weakening, I don’t know.”
Dimon heads America’s largest bank by assets and is widely known as the most powerful banker in the country. He’s known for blunt, cautious prognoses about the economy, consumers and corporate outlooks. On July 10, he said that people were underestimating the potential for higher interest rates, giving them a 40%-50% chance. In his annual letter to shareholders in April, when President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs on most countries, he wrote, “The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession.”
The Labor Department’s preliminary revision covers 10 months before Trump took office, suggesting that more fallout from tariffs and a weakening job market may be still come. Nonfarm payroll job growth was anemic in August, at 22,000, after a revised 79,000 in July and a loss of 13,000 jobs in June.
Dimon told CNBC, “There’s a lot of different factors in the economy right now,” citing weakening consumer confidence and growth in corporate profits. “We just have to wait and see.”
Advertisement: Scroll to Continue
Economists are watching for signs of stagflation, an economic cycle marked by high inflation, low economic growth, or stagnation, and high unemployment, all simultaneously. Annual inflation in July was 2.7%, above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%. Reuters reported Tuesday that the nation’s central bank is widely expected to cut interest rates, something Trump is pressuring it to do, when it meets next week, even though inflation is above its goal.
Last month, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the Labor Department, after it released a downwardly revised jobs report he didn’t like.
