This morning’s job report was weaker than expected, with employers adding a lot fewer jobs than expected. Gains from previous months were also revised down, which isn’t a great sign. But in general, this morning’s job report confirms that the economy is continuing to head mostly in the right direction, with the unemployment rate at a very low 4.3 percent. It isn’t perfect – the retail sector continues to shed jobs at an alarming pace, and the overall number of jobs added isn’t much to write home about. But there’s not much that would suggest the Federal Reserve might veer away from plans to further raise benchmark interest rates soon. Even if the Fed does hike short-term lending rates later this month, longer term interest rates such as mortgages are unlikely to move much. Home shoppers say rising rates won’t impact their plans to buy unless mortgage rates get up to about 5.5%, so we still have a ways to go on that front. As wages continue to grow, up 2.5 percent this month compared to last year, we can expect rental affordability start to improve, bringing much needed relief to renters. In some expensive housing markets, renters can expect to put well over 30% of their monthly income toward a rental payment. Rental growth has been slowing over the past several months and is expected to grow less than 2% nationally over the next year. State and local government jobs also fell substantially, which is somewhat worrisome. But the federal government hiring freeze announced by the Trump Administration in January expired in May and federal hiring jumped 8 percent as government agencies were able to onboard new staff whose positions had been on hold. While there was some speculation earlier this year that the hiring freeze could weigh on the Washington, D.C. housing market, home values and rents in the nation’s capital have proven immune to this relatively minor blip in the region’s labor market.