US Job Growth Improves in July but Unemployment Rate Rises a Bit

A recent on-line discussion of the Fed’s continued inaction in the face of worsening economic data included the following exchange of comments:

Commenter 1: When you got nothin’ but blanks left you just stand there with the gun and pretend you might pull the trigger
Commenter 2: Maybe Bernanke should just throw the gun

Now, two days after the Federal Open Market Committee’s midweek meeting, we get another weak jobs report. True, the BLS news release tries to put a good face on things, headlining a gain of 163,000 payroll jobs and reporting that the unemployment rate was “essentially unchanged.” A closer look at the numbers, though, shows that the report contains more bad news than good. >>> Read more

Follow this link to view or download a classroom-ready slideshow with charts of the latest employment data