Expecting 180 thousand jobs, America produced 255 thousand jobs in July.  This repeated the same happy surprise in the June jobs report.  Where is the recession?  Is the economy really as slow as indicated by the GDP reports over the first two quarters?  No!

So, what is not to like in yesterday’s report?

Primarily, the U-6 level of unemployment actually increased slightly to 9.7%.  This is that heartbreaking level of unemployment of those people who are unemployed, plus those people who are under-employed, plus those people who want full-time work but can only find part-time work, plus those people who have just given up.  It has been falling faster, thankfully, than the more widely-discussed U-3 level of 4.9%.  Why did the unemployment rate for the most desperate workers stop decreasing and actually tick up?

Secondarily, the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is barely moving.  Only 62.8% of working-age Americans are contributing to the GDP.  Over a third of working-age Americans are not working.  Republicans argue people have been made lazy by welfare payments.  Democrats argue that huge numbers of baby-boomers are retiring and no longer contributing.  Austrian economists argue that anything that encourages people NOT to work is un-American.  We call it Social Security.