September 3, 2010: GIVEN the consistently disappointing data we’ve seen out of the American economy in recent weeks, the outlook for this morning’s August payroll employment report was uncomfortably uncertain.
Here’s the problem. August marked the eighth straight month of job gains in the the private sector – a welcome pattern that President Obama was quick to highlight. Yet those gains average less than 100,000 per month. That’s not enough to improve the job market, economists say.
Friday’s job numbers showed a rise in unemployment and a loss of 54,000 jobs in the overall economy due to the loss of Census employment. But some of the trends within the report helped to reassure investors that the economy doesn’t appear headed into recession this fall.
