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The jobs report just came out. The unemployment rate for July was 4.8%. The economy created 113,000 new jobs which was below expectations of 135,000. The futures markets are now decidedly against a rate hike next week.

I just dug into the numbers a little bit. The unemployment rate was reported at 4.8%, but it was really 4.755%, so it rounds up to 4.8%. This is small consolation to the unemployed, but the jobless rate is basically the same as it was in April.

Here's the chart:

Nonfarm payrolls were revised higher by small amounts in May and June (8,000 and 11,000 respectively). In the last four months, the economy has created an average of 112,000 new jobs. In the 30 months prior to that, new job growth averaged 167,000. For contract, in the 1990s, new job growth average over 250,000 a month for seven years. Here's what nonfarm jobs have looked like since 2000:

The yield on the 10-year T-Bond is now down to 4.9%.

Posted by edelfenbein at August 4, 2006 8:47 AM