Unemployment rate rises to 4.8 percent

Graph on net job gains. From CNN.Com

I really don't know what commentary I can add to this story. This is off the Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON -- The government today issued its first reading of the economy's performance in the second half of 2006 and the news was not encouraging.

The unemployment rate rose in July for the first time since February, jumping from 4.6% to 4.8%, the Labor Department reported. The economy generated a disappointing 113,000 new jobs, below private economists' consensus forecast of 144,000.

The new jobs fell considerably short of the 213,000 Americans who entered the labor force in July.

Economists, focusing on the weak job creation figure for the fourth consecutive month, almost uniformly predicted that the Fed would leave short-term interest rates unchanged at its Tuesday meeting.

The rate-rising campaign has not purged the economy of inflation. In the jobs report, average hourly earnings of production workers rose 0.4% in July, from $16.69 to $16.76. Over the last 12 months, wages have risen 3.8%.

To a considerable degree, recent wage gains have merely enabled workers to make up some of the ground they lost to inflation during the 2001 recession and the early years of the recovery. Wages have barely kept pace with inflation during the last 12 months; during the last four years they have lost 0.7%.

And while we're looking at the job market here, I found this CNN.Com story titled Jobless Claims Up:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Initial jobless aid rose 14,000 last week but remained at levels still indicative of a stable labor market, the government said Thursday.

First-time claims for state unemployment benefits rose to 315,000 in the week ended July 29 from an upwardly revised 301,000 for the prior week, the Labor Department said.

Wall Street analysts expected claims to move up to 308,000 from the original reading of 298,000 reported for the prior week.

A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors behind the rise.

The four-week moving average of new claims, which flattens weekly volatility to provide a better sense of underlying job-market trends, ticked up to 313,750 in the week ended July 29 from 313,500 the previous week.

The number of people who remained on the jobless rolls after drawing an initial week of aid also rose, climbing 11,000 to 2.48 million in the week ended July 22, the latest period for which figures were available.