An Incomplete Jobs Picture

The various employment reports released today beat expectations on the headlines, but the report was less encouraging underneath. Unfortunately, the same goes for the ISM Non-Manufacturing report.

The Labor Department's employer survey revealed 163,000 jobs added during July. This was expected to only total 100,000. The June figure was revised downward to 64,000 from 80,000. The downward revision to the prior month is never good, but I tend to think the trend in employment is more important. In real life, employers don't flip-flop from hiring to firing month by month. Rather, if conditions are right for employers to accelerate hiring activity, it will be something that develops over a period of months, i.e., employment should be a momentum trade....384 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.

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