July Jobs Report: 8.3% Unemployment, 163K Jobs Added

Just a hit-and-run from me.

The jobs news is, well, ambiguous enough for everyone to grab a piece.

The two-part nature of the monthly jobs report often provides political parties an opportunity to cherry-pick their favorite parts — and the release on Friday of the July numbers was no exception.

Democrats moved quickly to promote the surprisingly strong jobs growth for the month, while Republicans seized on a small uptick in the overall unemployment rate as a further indictment of President Obama’s economic policies.

That's the NYTimes. Ed had a similar sentiment:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics gave some mildly good news for the first time in four months. The US economy added 163,000 jobs, slightly outpacing population growth, while the jobless rate ticked up slightly to 8.3%

But I think it's fair that we embrace Obama's own claimed measures for a successful economy. Here he is in 2004 dismissing a jobs report that found 310,000 jobs added and a 5.6% unemployment rate:

Hey, if 310,000 jobs added isn't good enough for the President, than a mere 163,000 isn't good enough for me.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 10:26 AM

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