July's Jobs Report Points To Dragging Economy As Summer Ends

Kevin Glass | September 05, 2014 8:36 AM

The Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor is out with their jobs report on August's economic situation. The report is a huge, huge miss. The BLS reported that 142,000 jobs were added in the month of August, the lowest number so far in 2014 and the the first time in six months that the economy added fewer than 200,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate declined slightly to 6.1%, but that's misleading. The labor force declined, slightly, and there are more peoploe not in the labor force. Fewer people are entering the labor force now than they were in July.

On the more mixed side of the equation, the number of long-term unemployed declined, the number of people employed part-time (underemployed) was unchanged, and the broader U-6 measure of unemployment dropped from 12.2% to 12.0%.

The usual caveats apply here: this report is subject to upward revisions - but also downward revisions. In this jobs report, the BLS lowered their estimates for previous months, with their estimates of June and July combined being lowered by 28,000 jobs. So this isn't the final word on the economy, but it is a sluggish finish to the month.