Employment Update: July 2013

The new employment data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today (link), are certain to produce frowns. Expectations had been for a gain of minimally 185,000 new jobs—and those with their eyes on the stock market hoped for something like 225,000. The actual results were otherwise.

The economy gained 162,000 jobs in July. However, June results were revised downward by 26,000 jobs, and if we factor that change in, the net gain was an anemic 136,000 in new employment. There is definitely a difference between watching jobs and watching the Dow. The Dow is more exciting, no doubt about it. The monthly chart follows:

The annualized projection for the year 2013 has also suffered a small decline. Last month it looked like we would end the year with a gain of 2.422 million jobs added. This month’s result is 2.309 million. It is still better that the gains of 2010 through 2012, but, on the jobs front, anyway, we’re still just threading water. That chart is next.

The positive note, this month, is that all but one of the sectors of the economy posited gains in employment. The only sector falling short, posting a loss, was the somewhat obscure Other Services category; it posted a loss of 2,000 jobs.