Weak U.S. tax receipts suggest things are not so good for the U.S. consumer even as employment continues to grow, Deutsche Bank Chief U.S. Economist Joseph LaVorgna said Monday.
The three-month moving average for U.S. jobs gains remains "good" at around 200,000 positions per month, but growth in tax receipts has fallen from about 6 percent a year ago to 3 percent today, LaVorgna said.
"That tells me income growth is a lot weaker than what official numbers show, which would explain why consumer spending has been so soft," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
On Friday, the Labor Department reported average hourly wages rose 2.5 percent in April on an annualized basis.
Excluding gasoline, nominal retail sales growth is up just 3 percent since oil prices peaked in the summer of 2014, LaVorgna said.
"It shows you the U.S. consumer is not as strong as you might think, and that the economy should be doing better. It's not, and there's a fundamental problem there," he said.