WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Labor Department reported Friday that the American economy shed 23,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%, and if you are reading that sentence the way the media wants you to read it — with worry, with concern, with the dawning realization that you may have to work an extra year before retirement — then you are reading it wrong.

Let us do the math the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not want you to do it. Economists had expected the economy to add 85,000 jobs. Instead, we lost 23,000. That is a swing of 108,000 jobs — 108,000 jobs we no longer have to create, 108,000 paychecks we no longer have to process, 108,000 retirement parties we no longer have to plan. In a single month, America saved itself 108,000 jobs’ worth of effort. That is not a loss. That is efficiency.

And look at the unemployment rate: down to 4.1%. Down! While the economy was losing jobs! The unemployment rate fell precisely because fewer people are working or looking for work, and I would like to meet the person who thinks that is a bad thing. The American people have looked at the labor market and made a choice: they would rather be doing literally anything else. And who can blame them? It is August. The beach is open. The jobs, apparently, are not.

"The labor market isn't shrinking, it's streamlining," said Dr. Meredith Hollings, an economist at a think tank that has not hired anyone since April. "We don't need 23,000 jobs. We needed them gone. Have you seen what those people were doing all day?"

Worker pay, the report noted, was nearly flat, with the 12-month increase in average hourly earnings slipping. Flat pay. Think about what that means: prices are finally staying still, wages are finally staying still, everything is finally staying still. The economy has achieved peace. The only people upset about flat wages are people who wanted their wages to go up, which, in this economy, is a lifestyle choice.

The experts, naturally, are calling it a “sudden reversal” and a “summer hiring slump.” They say the labor market has “not stabilized” after four months of positive growth. But that is the beauty of this administration’s economic vision: why stabilize a market when you can simply stop participating in it? The Fed wants a cooling labor market. The White House wants a lean government. The American worker wants a nap. For the first time in modern economic history, everyone gets what they want.

THE JULY JOBS REPORT: A HERO'S READING

  • Jobs lost: 23,000. That is 23,000 fewer paychecks available for the government to tax. You are welcome.
  • Unemployment rate: 4.1%, down. Because the denominator got smaller. This is called math, and it is on our side.
  • Average hourly earnings: Nearly flat. Flat is the new up. Up is the new show-off.
  • What economists expected: +85,000 jobs. What economists know about the American worker: nothing, as usual.
  • People no longer looking for work: Some. They are at the beach. They have never been happier.
  • People still looking for work: They should try the beach. It is where the opportunity is.

The genius of the July report is that it finally decouples the two numbers that have haunted this country for generations: employment and unemployment. For decades, Americans assumed you needed one to have the other. Not anymore. We have proven, on the national stage, that you can lose jobs and lower unemployment at the same time. It is the economic equivalent of losing weight by getting rid of the scale, and it is the only diet that has ever worked.

At press time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced it would not release an August jobs report, because its statisticians had also decided to stop working, and frankly, who could blame them.