Payrolls Grow as Unemployment Ticks Down (+117,000, rate at 9.1%). Stocks poised for higher open.

[jefferson_dem]

Payrolls Grow as Unemployment Ticks Down
By LUCA DI LEO And JEFFREY SPARSHOTT

WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in July and the unemployment rate edged down, a move that should help ease concerns that a new recession may be around the corner.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 117,000 last month as private-sector employers added 154,000 jobs, the Labor Department said Friday. Payroll data for the previous two months were revised up by a total 56,000 to show increases of 46,000 jobs in June and 53,000 in May.

The unemployment rate, which is obtained from a separate household survey, dropped to 9.1% last month from 9.2% in June. That still leaves almost 14 million Americans who would like to work without a job.

The numbers were better than expected and may help lift stock markets, which fell sharply Thursday amid concerns that a new recession may be in the offing. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast payrolls would rise by 75,000 in July and that the jobless rate would remain at 9.2%.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576489890842851456.html

Stocks: Breathing a sigh of job relief

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks were poised for a higher open Friday, following a much better-than-expected monthly jobs report.

After hovering in the red for most of the premarket session Friday, Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures turned 1% higher immediately after the report's release. Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.

The turn in futures comes as welcome relief for investors, who have been beaten down over the past few weeks.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/05/markets/premarkets/index.htm?iid=HP_LN

[jefferson_dem]

1. A graph...

[ProSense]

2. Manufacturing added 24,000 jobs. BLS report

link

<...>

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 117,000 in July, following little
growth over the prior 2 months. Total private employment rose by 154,000 over
the month, reflecting job gains in several major industries, including health
care, retail trade, manufacturing, and mining. Government employment continued
to decline. (See table B-1.)

Health care employment grew by 31,000 in July. Ambulatory health care services
and hospitals each added 14,000 jobs over the month. Over the past 12 months,
health care employment has grown by 299,000.

Retail trade added 26,000 jobs in July. Employment in health and personal care
stores rose by 9,000 over the month with small increases distributed among
several other retail industries. Employment in retail trade has increased by
228,000 since a recent low in December 2009.

Manufacturing employment increased in July (+24,000); nearly all of the
increase was in durable goods manufacturing. Within durable goods, the motor
vehicles and parts industry had fewer seasonal layoffs than typical for July,
contributing to a seasonally adjusted employment increase of 12,000.
Manufacturing has added 289,000 jobs since its most recent trough in December
2009, and durable goods manufacturing added 327,000 jobs during this period.

In July, employment in mining rose by 9,000; virtually all of the gain (+8,000)
occurred in support activities for mining. Employment in mining has increased
by 140,000 since a recent low in October 2009.

Employment in professional and technical services continued to trend up in July
(+18,000). This industry has added 246,000 jobs since a recent low in March
2010. Employment in temporary help services changed little over the month and
has shown little movement on net so far this year.

Elsewhere in the private sector, employment in construction, transportation
and warehousing, information, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality
changed little over the month.

Government employment continued to trend down over the month (-37,000).
Employment in state government decreased by 23,000, almost entirely due to a
partial shutdown of the Minnesota state government. Employment in local
government continued to wane over the month.

<...>

[ellie]

3. I thought this thread

would have more recs and more comments.

Huh.

[frustrated_lefty]

5. It would be more encouraging

if these numbers didn't have a history of being lowered retroactively with reports that "initial claims were overly optimistic..."

[Sheepshank]

4. I'm actually sticking my head in the sand re: stock market

3 years from retiring and I couldn't access my acount on Monday to move everything to safer bets. Damn all those freaking passwords.

[elleng]

17. I agree, about passwords.

I 'hold' mutual funds, tho was thinking about taking some cash out quickly (cause we need it for daughter's wedding in few weeks.)

Dow up now.

http://markets.on.nytimes.com/research/markets/overview/overview.asp

:hi:

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. Finally, a little good news in all this mess. Thanks.

:hi:

[blueclown]

7. I wouldn't call this good news.

I'd call this bad news.

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. I'll bet the 117,000 who landed a job would disagree. But do carry on.

:eyes:

[blueclown]

10. How about double the amount of people who were looking for a job

yet are not considered unemployed anymore and are simply taken off the unemployment rolls?

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cali_Democrat]

9. Actually the economy has to generate 150,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth

So when you think about, we're still not even treading water. Also consider the number of jobs lost since 2007 and you can really see the hole we're in.

[Tarheel_Dem]

11. Go Away!

Full employment doesn't just happen, and some of us choose to celebrate that this month's news is better than last month's. Is that okay with you? :shrug:

[Cali_Democrat]

14. Of course full employment doesn't just happen

The right economic conditions and policies have to be in place or long term structural employment has to be expected. Unfortunately that is currently not the case.

Not sure what the "go away" remark was about. I'm just discussing the US employment numbers with you.

Relax.

[Tarheel_Dem]

16. I don't like you. That should be clear enough even for you. Your Debbie-Downer,

anti Obama crap infests this forum like a swarm of locusts, and is just tiresome. And if you'll remember, I wasn't responding to you, I was responding to the o.p. ;)

[Cali_Democrat]

18. Discussing other DU'ers rather than the issues at hand is a sign of intellectual ineptitude. n/t

[Tarheel_Dem]

19. Then I take it you won't engage me in the future?

:shrug:

[Cali_Democrat]

21. Many times when I reply to people on DU I don't even look at the name

So I can't guarantee you of anything.

Sorry.

[jeff47]

20. Going away won't turn a bad report into a good one. (nt)

[jenmito]

13. The number of private sector jobs was 154,000. The number of jobs lost thanks to

Repubs. brought the total down to 117,000. They're doing their best to "shrink government" in order to shrink Obama's chances of re-election.

[Cali_Democrat]

15. Correct

It's still less than what we need to put millions of Americans back to work. Every month thousands of people are entering the labor force, so you can see the tall task ahead of us. Not only do we have to create jobs to make up for the millions of jobs we already lost, but we also have to create enough jobs employ the people entering the workforce every month.

It's a tall order to say the least especially when you consider the current economic conditions and the lack of any real jobs bill in Washington DC.

[BklnDem75]

22. That number keeps rising

The actual number is 125k per month with a workforce of 150 mil. Population growth is 1% per year, which means 1.5 million jobs per year.

[quiller4]

24. Population growth and work force growth are not the same thing.

Remember that baby boomers are moving into retirement. For the next decade we will have more older workers leaving the work force than new workers entering it.

[BklnDem75]

25. It's still no excuse to pull a number out of thin air

[quiller4]

23. No. It doesn't. That 150,000 number presupposes that no baby boomer

wants early retirement. It is reasonable to assume that the number of folks who choose early retirement will hold at the same percentage as the last decade. Using that assumption, we need net cration of 130,000 jobs a month because we are reducing the size of the workforce.

According to Social Security, the number of workers applying for early retirement is increasing, not deecreasing.

[Proles]

26. Well, I think its inspiring, in spite of all that has happened

thanks to the repub's persistent efforts to destroy this economy (again!).

It will be interesting to see how Obama's proposal for helping war veterans find private jobs will play out in Congress.

If we still had Weiner, he could once again put the repub's to shame for their hypocrisy and lack of compassion.