Friday’s job report was a big miss. Most analysts expected the economy to create one million jobs in April. Instead, businesses added a paltry 266,000 new jobs—that’s a gap of almost 750,000 jobs. Did I say it was a big miss? However, the unemployment rate remained essentially unchanged at 6.1 percent. At the same time, wages rose 0.7 percent from March and the labor force increased 430,000 overall. As first glance, it seems the economy is sending us lots of mixed signals. But is it? Taking a bit closer look at the numbers provides us some answers and the key is the labor market.