Unemployment falls as 368K give up on finding work
The economy added 96,000 jobs in August, down from 141,000 jobs in July, the Department of Labor said Friday. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, from 8.3% in July. The drop in unemployment was caused because 368,000 people stopped looking for work and therefore were no longer counted in the survey.
The labor force participation rate, at 63.5 percent, is the lowest it has been in more than thirty years.
The 96,000 jobs that were added were even lower than the 125,000 that was predicted, and it’s our 43rd straight month of unemployment over 8 percent.
The economy lost 8.8 million jobs from the time employment peaked in January 2008 until it hit bottom in February 2010. Between then and this July — the most recent month for which there are figures — just 4 million jobs have been recovered.
The NY Times headline: “Joblessness may undermine Obama convention bump”
“It was a blunt reminder of the forces working against him,” writes Jim Rutenberg of the Times.
[…] week, the government’s jobs report showed hiring slowed substantially in August and the labor force […]
[…] Obama follows the DNC with an optimistic speech in St Pete, Florida as critics attack the latest job numbers. President Obama at St Pete college in Seminole photo/Brandon […]