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back to article U.S. unemployment rate slips slightly

Economists were bracing for deep jobs cuts in the U.S. economy during the month of July, but could relax this morning as the numbers coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics were not as bad as expected, and not an unhappy surprise like Americans got in June. The situation is still bad, with 247,000 people losing their jobs …

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  1. scotchbonnet

    Observations From The Trenches

    When viewing these employment figures, it's helpful to understand that many businesses use 1 July as the beginning of their fiscal year. Annual budgets renew in July and having been in Human Resources for decades, I have noticed that there is often a spike in employment during July as departments rush to fill vacant positions while they have the budget space. BLS routinely makes a number of adjustments to their data, as the author points out, but the budget cycles of employers is not one of those adjustments.

    The real test will be over the next few months, when we'll see if this is a trend or just a blip.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    worth a look

    nobel prize winner comments on this here: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/jobs-paradox/

    There are statistics and statistics: as ever, it's better to take a view from a distance rather than getting bound up in the details.

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  3. rgruenhaus
    Megaphone

    How to route out highly paid older non-union workers

    Business couldn't possibly be connected with banks to scare up a way to lay off all the older highest paid, union workers to make way for younger lower paid, non-union workers, could they?

    The numbers on the unemployment lists are only the ones not collecting money from unemployment, not all those without a job! Now of course companies created the perfect pick of the litter situation like the real estate buyers have.

    It is too obvious to be just a conspiracy theory. Whatever the news wants to spread is what we hear though.

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