Today's employment report is marginally better than the market anticipated, showing 150,000 plus additional private sector jobs for the month of July. That number would be anemic, historically, for an economic recovery number. You need nearly 250,000 a month to put a dent into unemployment. The fall in the rate from 9.2 to 9.1 occurred only because so many folks gave up looking for a job and thus are no longer counted among the unemployed. But, that said, this morning's number was not disastrous, just merely discouraging.
Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets. That's the sad state of affairs for the US economy. We now face stagnation for a generation (or possibly generations) until economic policy does an about face (which it might not do).
