This is concerning: The US economy has lost -142,200 jobs over the last 4 months when excluding healthcare, the most since 2020. US nonfarm payrolls excluding healthcare fell by -53,000 in May, -71,800 in June ,and -24,800 in August. Over the last 25 years, such a rapid decline after a few years of growth has always coincided with the beginning of a recession. Put differently, the healthcare sector accounted for 125% of private service job growth over the last 3 months, implying that the rest of the private sector has contracted. The US job market is much weaker than it appears.