Job losses drop to 9.4% far lower than expected

[VC2]

"Labor Department data due out Friday is expected to show job losses slowing in July to a pace of around 320,000, with unemployment rising to 9.6 percent, up from 9.5 percent the previous month. If the job-loss estimate is on target, it would be a heartening improvement from June's 467,000 job losses — and the slowest pace for job losses since August 2008. "
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8273002

considering all the analysts expected an increase this is great news. Jobs are the lagging indicator in a recession, meaning the last to stabilize then turn around

imo

[Doc Holliday]

It took me a while to figure out there was a temp forum.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm


U3 drops to 9.4%, and net job loss was much lower than predicted too, at -247,000.

On the surface, this looks like very bright news to me.

Right now I'm very happy with this.

[Doc Holliday]

From CR: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pMscxxELHEg/SnwgkR2nLTI/AAAAAAAAGB0/UjS-QqXJwi8/s320/EmploymentRecessionsJuly.jpg

The economy continues to suffer a net loss of jobs, but at a much slower pace.

The sooner that curve turns sharply to the north, the happier I'll be.

The 2001 curve shows what a jobless recovery looks like.

[daniel green]

The drop -- the first in 15 months -- comes as a surprise; economists had expected the rate to rise to as high as 9.7 percent.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/07/unemployment-rate-falls-t_n_253675.html

[Doc Holliday]

What? You no like VC2's thread? :)

http://boards.insessiontrials.com/showthread.php?t=356907


It might be a blip, but I'll take this anyway as the happy news it is.

[daniel green]

Good news, indeed.

Doc, I had not seen VC's thread when I posted a duplicate.

Will ask CW to delete.

[Doc Holliday]

Good news, indeed.

Doc, I had not seen VC's thread when I posted a duplicate.

Will ask CW to delete.

I guess I don't mind if this good news gets spread around. The last thing I remember last night was hearing about rumors floating around about a worse-than-expected labor report. I thought for sure it was going to ring in at 9.9 or even hit 10. Imagine my delight when I brought up the website and discovered that U3 fell! I almost fell myself right out of my chair.

Sure it's probably a blip and 99.999% of economists will tell you that the trend over the next several months will be higher unemployment, but in the mean time I'm just going to enjoy the better-than-expected news - at least for the weekend.

Heck, if it wasn't for that bad ISM index on the service side, this would have been a pretty decent week.

Treasury has updated their monthly chart: http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/economic-policy/macroecon/monthly_economic_data.pdf