The American economy lost 247,000 jobs in July, and in a reversal, the unemployment rate fell slightly, to 9.4 percent, the government reported Friday. þþAlthough businesses are expected to keep cutting jobs through the rest of the year, the Labor Department’s latest figures offered some faint signs that the sinking job market was approaching bottom. þþThe length of the workweek increased, albeit slightly, for the first time since August, a sign that businesses were not scaling back hours to cut their payroll costs. The government said fewer jobs were lost this spring than it had initially estimated, revising June’s lob losses to 443,000 from 467,000.þþ“The basic message is that the rate of job cuts is diminishing, and that’s good news,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight. “Still, you’re seeing job cuts everywhere except education, health care, government. I don’t think we’re at bottom yet in employment.”þþ“We’re a long way from the end of the employment problem,” said Brian Fabbri, an economist at BNP Paribas. “Things are improving, make no mistake. But were not near the time when businesses are going to hire again.”þþEven if the economy begins growing again this summer — as many economists expect it will — laid-off workers are likely to be among the last to benefit. Businesses that slashed their work force and inventories over the last year to cope with the economic deterioration are likely to hire temporary workers or pay overtime wages before they begin fielding applications for new full-time workers.þþThat means hundreds of thousands more workers are likely to lose their jobs, perhaps well into next year. Many economists — and President Obama — have said they expect the unemployment rate to reach 10 percent before businesses begin hiring again.þþFriday’s employment picture was better- than forecasters had been expecting. Economists had estimated that 325,000 jobs were lost in July and that the unemployment rate would rise to 9.6 percent.þþThe report offers a measure of relief to the Obama administration, which weathered intense criticism when the pace of job losses accelerated in June after leveling off a month earlier. Conservative critics have cited the monthly jobs report, which has rapidly become a political football, as evidence that the $787 billion stimulus was not working, while liberals have previously maintained that it showed that the economy needed another jolt of stimulus.þþBut the president and his economic advisers have said the stimulus put the brakes on the economy’s swift decline, and was instrumental in reducing the rate of economic contraction to 1 percent during the second quarter. The White House has said there is no immediate need for an additional package, and has urged Americans to be patient as stimulus spending percolates through the economy. But for unemployed Americans scouring want-ads and tacking their résumés up onto online job boards, patience — and money — are wearing thin.þþKaren Triplett, 61, of Atlanta, lost her job in advertising sales in February and said she has been hitting wall after wall as she looks for work. The only job offer she received, she said, turned out to be a scam. þþ“It’s dismal to say the least,” she said. “I went from making $60,000 a year to $1,100 a month unemployment. I’ve got two friends who have already lost their houses. I’m struggling just to make sure my house note is met.” þþMs. Triplett said she worked nearly full-time since she was a teenager — as a secretary at a bank, a tobacco company and a television station, as a flight attendant, and selling advertising. She raised two children, bought a house, paid her bills on time and had a credit score of 878. Now, she is trying to stretch her unemployment checks far enough to cover her costs and struggling to pay her credit-card bills.þþ“I’m beyond down to basics,” Ms. Triplett said. “My daughter’s tried to help me. My son has given me money. But what I can’t do, I can’t do.” þþIn Houston, Jim Cross, 52, has had so little luck finding work since he lost his job at a valve company that he has begun looking for job opportunities in the Middle East and Europe. He scours the Internet for jobs, has joined networking groups and attends a “between-jobs ministry” at a church outside Houston, but nothing has yielded full-time work. He uses his unemployment checks to pay the mortgage on his condo, and puts the rest of his expenses on credit cards. þþHe does not know what he will do when his unemployment payments expire in three months. þþ“It’s been very frustrating,” Mr. Cross said. “I’ve had to stay real positive. I keep saying that this is going to be the week. I’m still looking.”þþ
Source: NY Times
