Payroll Problems Persist

Nonfarm payrolls rose by a profoundly dismal 18K in June, way below the 125K gain expected by economists! Making things worse, job gains in May were revised down to 25K from 54K. The unemployment rate inched up by 0.1% to 9.2%. Government employment fell by 39K. If you include discouraged workers and those forced to work part-time, the unemployment rate rose to 16.2% from 15.8%! This is about as bad as anyone could imagine.