Jobless Rate Fell To 7.7% in July As Payrolls Rose --- Report Suggests Economy Remains at a Standstill; Special Program Helped
WASHINGTON -- The latest employment report suggests that the labor market improved during the past month but that the economy is still at a virtual standstill.</br></br>"We're still not going anywhere," said Robert Dederick, chief economist for Northern Trust Co. in Chicago.</br></br>The Labor Department's employment report for July showed a drop in the unemployment rate to 7.7% of the work force from 7.8%. And 198,000 new jobs were created in July after a revised decline of 63,000 in June.</br></br>But 75,000 of the new jobs came from federally funded summer jobs for teenagers. While those jobs may have helped to lower the unemployment rate of teen-agers by 2.6 percentage points, it did hardly anything to help adults, who are the driving force behind consumer spending.</br></br>But there is also a positive spin to the job growth. With such a slow economy, any job-creation is good. Aside from the growth in government positions, the service sector added 110,000 jobs in July, following a meager increase in June. Within services, eating and drinking places added 20,000 jobs last month.