Here’s everything you need to look for in Friday’s July jobs report

Friday’s jobs report could provide a crucial piece to the increasingly complicated puzzle that is the U.S. economy and its long-anticipated slide into recession.

Wall Street prognosticators expect that nonfarm payrolls increased by 200,000 in July, a number that would be the smallest gain since December 2020, while unemployment is projected to hold steady at 3.6%. June saw a gain of 209,000, and the year-to-date total is around 1.7 million.

While slower job growth might fit the narrative that the U.S. is headed for a contraction, other data, such as GDP, productivity...