Job-creation picks up steam in July
(MoneyWatch) New government figures show the U.S. economy added more jobs in July than in the four previous months, although the nation's unemployment rate ticked up slightly.
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 163,000 last month, with more jobs added in professional and business services, manufacturing, and restaurants and bars, according to the U.S. Labor Department. That rate of job creation was slightly stronger than had been forecast, with many economists expecting companies to have added 100,000 jobs in July.
The overall jobless rate rose to 8.3 percent, up from 8.2 percent in June, with a federal survey of U.S. households showing that fewer people had jobs. The Labor Department's survey of businesses, which is regarded as more reliable, showed job gains in the private sector. By contrast, the government continued to shrink last month, eliminating 9,000 jobs, according to the latest data.
GOP seizes on unemployment uptick in July jobs report
Weekly jobless claims edge up
U.S. incomes rise, but spending lull hurts economy
July jobs report emits mixed signals
Employers added 64,000 jobs in June, a third straight month of weak hiring. In the second quarter, the economy created an average of 75,000 jobs a month, one-third of the 226,000 jobs a month created in the first quarter.
The recent growth rate is too low to significantly reduce unemployment. The economy needs to add upwards of 100,000 jobs a month simply to keep pace with the number of people entering the labor force. To make deeper inroads into the jobless rate, at least 250,000 jobs must be created each month.
The labor market has improved since mid-2011, when the unemployment rate reached 9.2 percent. More recently, the four-week average of people claiming unemployment benefits, a measure of layoffs, has fallen for six consecutive weeks.
Despite these positive signals, job seekers still face unusual difficulty finding work. The ratio of unemployed people to job openings remains above 3-to-1, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think-tank. That figure is down from its peak of 6.7-to-1 during the height of the recession in the summer of 2009, but the subpar pace of job creation still leaves millions of Americans with little hope of finding employment.
"With construction getting stronger and retail sales likely improving in the fall, it is reasonable to expect job growth in the range of 160,000 to 180,000 over the rest of the year," said economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in a report today on the July labor numbers. "This is better than the last few months, but it will take a decade at this pace to make up the jobs deficit."
With 12.8 million Americans still unemployed, relief appears unlikely to come anytime soon. The Federal Reserve said this week that the economy was decelerating, noting that "growth in employment has been slow in recent months." The economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.5 percent from April through June, down from 2 percent in the first three months of the year and from 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011.
That slowdown is visible across the economy. For instance, the key manufacturing sector shrank for a second straight month in July, according to a recent private survey. Through the first quarter, manufacturers had been among the few bright spots in what economists agree has been a historically lackluster recovery. But the ongoing economic turmoil in Europe and slowing growth in China, India, and other emerging markets has weakened demand for U.S. exports. That has reduced factory hiring.
Consumer spending, while showing some resilience given the faltering economy, has also declined of late. Personal expenditures fell $1.3 billion in June, or 0.1 percent, compared with the previous month, the U.S. Commerce Department said this week.
The economy's loss of momentum has raised expectations that the Fed would soon ease monetary policy in a bid to spur growth. But while Fed officials said Wednesday that the economic outlook is darkening, they left policy unchanged.
Despite the modestly stronger job numbers in July, the central bank is likely to remain under pressure to take action, especially from investors who have pushed up the stock market in recent weeks in anticipation of help from the Fed. The Fed's policy options include a third round of bond purchases aimed at forcing down long-term interest rates and lowering the interest the Fed pays banks on their reserves in a bid to boost lending.
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Vets' unemployment rate improves again in July
""Aug 3, 2012 - The job outlook for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans continues to brighten as the unemployment rate for the group fell for the sixth month in a row.
The unemployment rate for veterans who entered service after Sept. 11, 2001, fell to 8.9 percent in July, down from 9.5 percent the previous month and from 12.4 percent in July 2011, according to the latest monthly employment report released Friday by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Veterans of all generations also saw a sharp drop in their unemployment rate: the overall veterans jobless rate was 6.9 percent, down from 7.4 percent in June and 8.6 percent a year ago.
The national unemployment rate remained almost unchanged at 8.3 percent, up a tick from 8.2 percent in June.
But the economy added roughly 163,000 payroll jobs in July, more than twice the amount it added in June.""
Actually the government report said it was less than .05% but they had to round it up. It ticked up because more people are looking for work instead of giving up. When unemployment ticked down a few months ago everyone was happy to jump on the idea that it was because less people are looking for work, but they can't go the other way, can they?
This is a DECENT JOBS REPORT compared to the last few months and it's worth feeling good about. Hope things continue to pick up as we move into the fall.
What does mitt romney propose to increase job creation? -- just more of the same tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations offshoring jobs!
That's ALL the republicans can propose -- more of the same failed GOP economic policies of tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation!
jmm122736 you are an "ignorant" liar in deep denial making up numbers that are easily exposed if you google them to the leading top econimists who only report facts and not partisian skewed information.
What snowballing? The official recession starte late in 2007 after almost a year of a Democrat controlled congress and late in 2008 the economic melt down or collapse occured because they were in with Fannie and freddie with the subprime loans and let the Banks and Wall St run amock with their risky get rich schemes.
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Be carefulNoProgress—Dems, Your character and integrity are showing;
I would be very careful of calling ANYONE a liar.
The unemployment rate rose from 5.0 % to 7.8 % in 2008, the last year of the Busch/Cheney administration.
The snowballing unemployment rate actually increased by 5%, before it finally peaked 10 months later at 10 % (October 2009) and receded to as low as 8.1 % where it has fluctuated between 8.1 % and 8.3 % during 2012.
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2002 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.9 5.8 5.8 5.8 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.9 6
2003 5.8 5.9 5.9 6 6.1 6.3 6.2 6.1 6.1 6 5.8 5.7
2004 5.7 5.6 5.8 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.4 5.4
2005 5.3 5.4 5.2 5.2 5.1 5 5 4.9 5 5 5 4.9
2006 4.7 4.8 4.7 4.7 4.6 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4
2007 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4 4.6 4.7 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.7 5
2008 5 4.9 5.1 5 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.1 6.1 6.5 6.8 7.3
2009 7.8 8.3 8.7 8.9 9.4 9.5 9.5 9.6 9.8 10 9.9 9.9
2010 9.7 9.8 9.8 9.9 9.6 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.5 9.5 9.8 9.4
2011 9.1 9 8.9 9 9 9.1 9.1 9.1 9 8.9 8.7 8.5
2012 8.3 8.3 8.2 8.1 8.2 8.2 8.3
BTW, Democrats NEVER had veto proof control of congress.
Bush used his veto pen only once during the first six years of his administration and that was to block the use of frozen stem cells for medical research, (even though those same stem cells were going to be destroyed anyway), yet Bush vetoed expense-cutting bills passed and sent to him by the democratic congress.
The reason we no longer have a manufacturing base in this country is
the minimum wage law that priced us out of the world labor market. There is a law of unintended consequences. The major world corporations such as ArcelorMittal SA, Rio Tinto and Tata are no longer American. No matter how many feel good liberal social programs you pass there will be no effect on these companies. They are not American companies that moved american jobs overseas. It is not in their interest to create jobs in America. The more social programs that you promulgate the faster this country slides down to third world status.
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USSAmerikan, Outsourcing of manufacturing jobs had absolutely nothing to do with minimum wage laws.
As a matter of fact, if those minimum wage limit laws had been written as MAXIMUM wage limits, there never would have been any outsourcing in the first place. Why do you think the government (starting with Reagan) and Corporations Have virtually destroyed LABOR UNIONS?
However you did make my point that those jobs will never return until American workers wages are reduced to those of the countries the jobs were outsourced to, and you can thank deregulation and programs like NAFTA for that.
As I said: This country is heading, hell-bent for leather, into indentured slavery of the working class, and the sadist part is, we continue to vote /ask for it
If president Obama gets reelected in 2012, will he will start blaming the 2008 Obama administration for all of his failures?
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I like this one.