Dept. of Labor employment statistics for July released today
Jobs cut in July: 247,000
Unemployment rate: 9.4% (down .1% from June)
The number of jobs cut were less than expected and the fact that only a quarter million jobs were cut instead of half a million was proclaimed by many as a sign the recession was over. So take heart from this encouraging bit of news job seekers, maybe sometime early next year the economy can actually start adding jobs again. However by then millions of people will have run out of unemployment benefits even with the government extensions they got that make benefits last 79 weeks which could further weaken the economy and cause more job losses.
How did the unemployment rate go down? As Tig Gilliam, CEO of the one of the largest employment staffing firms, explained: "You can't lose jobs and have the unemployment rate decline unless folks are opting out." So that 0.1% are people who are no longer included in the labor force because they're either going back to school or have just stopped looking. Let's hope the economy improves by the time those people who have gone back to school graduate, or else a lot of them will be in the same boat they were in except with student loans to repay.
Unemployment rate: 9.4% (down .1% from June)
The number of jobs cut were less than expected and the fact that only a quarter million jobs were cut instead of half a million was proclaimed by many as a sign the recession was over. So take heart from this encouraging bit of news job seekers, maybe sometime early next year the economy can actually start adding jobs again. However by then millions of people will have run out of unemployment benefits even with the government extensions they got that make benefits last 79 weeks which could further weaken the economy and cause more job losses.
How did the unemployment rate go down? As Tig Gilliam, CEO of the one of the largest employment staffing firms, explained: "You can't lose jobs and have the unemployment rate decline unless folks are opting out." So that 0.1% are people who are no longer included in the labor force because they're either going back to school or have just stopped looking. Let's hope the economy improves by the time those people who have gone back to school graduate, or else a lot of them will be in the same boat they were in except with student loans to repay.