U. S. Added 162,000 Jobs in July; Unemployment Falls to 7.4%
America’s employers added 162,000 jobs in July, fewer than expected, as the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.4 percent. The job gains reported by the Labor Department on Friday, were concentrated in retail, food services, financial activities and wholesale trade. The manufacturing sector gained 6,000 jobs; government employment stayed basically flat.
While July represented the 34th straight month of job creation, the relatively strong employment gains were still not on track to absorb the backlog of unemployed workers anytime soon. At the recent pace of job growth, it would take about seven years to close the so-called jobs gap left by the recession, according to the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/business...
While July represented the 34th straight month of job creation, the relatively strong employment gains were still not on track to absorb the backlog of unemployed workers anytime soon. At the recent pace of job growth, it would take about seven years to close the so-called jobs gap left by the recession, according to the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution.
READ MORE »
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/business...
..."But the country’s gross domestic product, a broad measure of the production of goods and services, grew at a relatively tepid annual rate of 1.7 percent in the second quarter of this year and 1.1 percent in the first quarter, much less than would be predicted from recent hiring trends."...