THE SCARIEST JOBS CHART EVER
The U.S. economy added just 162,000 jobs in July, missing expectations for 185,000 new jobs. To make things worse, the June jobs number was revised down to +188,000 from last month's estimate of +195,000 jobs.
And as the labor force participation rate fell, the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.4%.
All of this reminds us that despite the upticks in jobs, the overall jobs market remains anemic four years into the economic recovery.
Calculated Risk runs a chart every month that puts the current jobs recovery into perspective.
"This shows the depth of the recent employment recession — worse than any other post-war recession — and the relatively slow recovery due to the lingering effects of the housing bust and financial crisis," writes Bill McBride of Calculated Risk.
