Unemployment falls for the first time since April ‘08

Good news came out today about unemployment. In June, unemployment reached 9.5% and the numbers for July came out and unemployment actually fell to 9.4%. While the decrease isn’t much, it does mean that less jobs are being cut than before and people are actually finding work.

Some analysts were predicting the unemployment rate to go up to 9.6%, which is a slower increase than before, but they weren’t expecting a decrease like we have seen.

This good news may be a bit deceiving though. The workforce in July fell by 422,000 positions. That number is higher than the 155,000 losses in June. This difference in numbers would suggest that some of those out there are simply giving up the search for work altogether. If this is the case, then they wouldn’t be included in the unemployment figure because the unemployment percentage only includes those who are actively seeking employment but are unable to find it.

However, some sectors are showing promising signs of improvement. Take manufacturing for example. In July, 52,000 manufacturing jobs were lost. This is the first time since September 2008 where job losses in this sector were under 100,000.

In July, average hourly earnings also increase from $18.53 in June, to $18.56 an hour.

Overall, this news is promising. I am looking forward to seeing how things turn out in the long run. I am anxious to see how the government will operate when it is out of the recession. The current administration has only had to deal with bad economic news, and I am really looking forward to seeing how things will be handled when there’s no crisis to handle in the financial system.