Another 131,000 Jobs Lost

Today’s employment figures came in well-below forecasts. Additionally, June employment was revised downwards, with an additional 96,000 jobs lost.

Here is everything you need to know about today’s unemployment report…

From the BLS:

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 131,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Federal government employment fell, as 143,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private-sector payroll employment edged up by 71,000.

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Government employment fell by 202,000 in July, largely reflecting the loss of 143,000 temporary workers hired for Census 2010. Employment in both state and local governments edged down over the month.

Regarding discouraged workers:

About 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in July, an increase of 340,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.2 million discouraged workers in July, up by 389,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.4 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

From Calculated Risk:

The reason the unemployment rate was steady at 9.5% was because people left the workforce – and that is not good news. As the employment picture improves, people will return to the labor force, and that will put upward pressure on the unemployment rate.

The Labor Force Participation Rate decreased to 64.6% from 64.7% in June. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force. This decline is very disappointing, and the rate is well below the 66% to 67% rate that was normal over the last 20 years.

The dotted line shows the impact of Census hiring. In July, there were 196,000 temporary 2010 Census workers on the payroll. The number of Census workers will continue to decline – and the gap between the solid and dashed red lines will be gone in a few months.

On long-term unemployment:

The number of long term unemployed might have peaked … perhaps because people are giving up.

The New York Times adds:

Although the unemployment rate did not worsen, that was in part because people continued to leave the labor force, which means they simply stopped looking for work during the month. In July, 181,000 people left the labor force.

With some economists predicting a “double dip” back into recession and the political stakes for the Obama administration rising as the weeks tick closer to the midterm elections, Friday’s unemployment report renewed pressure on lawmakers to consider the next steps they might take to bolster the economy.

And Robert Reich chimes in:

Remember, we need 125,000 new jobs per month simply to keep up with the growth of the American population seeking jobs.

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In other words, the hole keeps getting deeper.