cross-posted from Working America's Main Street blog where I am a featured guest blogger
The July jobs report released today showed a virtually stagnant private sector adding only 71,000 jobs last month, less than the 100,000-plus needed to simply keep up with historical additions to the labor force from population growth. According to the Labor Department, government job losses totaled 202,000 in July, including the loss of 143,000 federal Census workers and another 48,000 among state and local workers, with 30,000 jobs lost in education. Total non-farm payroll employment declined by 131,000 in July.
The official unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.5 percent, but would have risen were it not for a decline of 181,000 in the size of the labor force. The number of people not counted in the labor force increased by 381,000 in July alone. That number has increased by 2.8 million since July 2009.
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