JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that a Labor Department report released Tuesday confirmed that the U.S. economy is slowing down.
The department revised lower its nonfarm payrolls data for the year through March 2025 by 911,000 jobs from initial estimates. That was on the high side of Wall Street’s expectations for a downward shift and the biggest revision in more than two decades.
“I think the economy is weakening,” Dimon said. “Whether it’s on the way to recession or just weakening, I don’t know.”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon speaking with CNBC’s Leslie Picker in Charlotte, N.C. on July 31st, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
The revision, showing the world’s largest economy produced far fewer jobs than thought, follows a report indicating employment growth had slowed to a near halt in July, adding just 73,000 jobs. President Donald Trump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner last month hours after the release of that report.
The August figures also showed weakness, as nonfarm payrolls only increased by 22,000 that month.
Investors pay attention to Dimon’s views on the economy, given his long tenure guiding the biggest U.S. bank by assets through periods of turbulence. Still, he has often warned of risks that don’t immediately materialize.
Dimon said that JPMorgan is privy to a spectrum of data around consumers, corporations and global trade. Most consumers still have jobs and are spending money, depending on their income levels, but their confidence may have just taken a hit.
“There’s a lot of different factors in the economy right now,” Dimon said, citing the weakening consumer and still-robust corporate profit. “We just have to wait and see.”
The Federal Reserve will “probably” reduce its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting later this month, though that might not “be consequential to the economy,” Dimon said.
