The US job market looks weaker than the official numbers suggest, which is bad for workers and risky for anyone piling money into stocks.

• Hiring shrank in July instead of growing, the first outright drop in five months and far below what forecasters expected.
• The government quietly revised the prior two months down by more than 100,000 jobs combined, a pattern of rosy first numbers followed by ugly corrections.
• The jobless rate ticked down only because people are giving up on finding work, not because more of them got hired.
• Job quality is slipping: part-time work is near a record high while full-time jobs are being cut as companies dodge benefit costs.
• Wages rose barely at all and are not keeping up with inflation, so paychecks buy less.

Outlook: Expect the economy to keep weakening beneath the headline figures, with the stock market vulnerable if reality catches up to the data.