“One month of slowing job growth is likely not enough for the Fed to make any drastic changes to its policy and we would need to see several months of a weakening employment picture in order for the Fed to act. The Fed is very focused on inflation and that may mean that jobs are collateral damage.”

“We would need to see several months of a weakening employment picture in order for the Fed to act,” Russell Evans, chief investment officer at Los Angeles-based Avitas Wealth Management, said via written commentary shared with Money Friday. “The Fed is very focused on inflation and that may mean that jobs are collateral damage.”

Russell Evans, Los Angeles-based chief investment officer at Avitas Wealth Management, with $1.2 billion in assets under management, wrote in a note that the employment picture is “starting to weaken and inflation may be tamer in the near future, which would bode well for the argument of pausing (the Fed’s) rate hikes, something that would be well-received by markets.”

Mr. Evans added that one month of slowing job growth is “likely not enough for the Fed to make any drastic changes to its policy and we would need to see several months of a weakening employment picture in order for the Fed to act.” The Fed, he noted, is “very focused on inflation and that may mean that jobs are collateral damage.”

In addition, Mr. Evans wrote, the Fed is unlikely to change policy over one jobs number, “although the market may believe it will, as the market is always looking for signs of clues on how the Fed is processing economic data as it pertains to its next policy step.”