July 2010 Jobs Report and the Economy

Keith Hall, of the Department of Labor spoke before the Joint Economic Committee about the July 2010 Jobs Report.

Summary:

• The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.5% with the economy losing 131,000 non-farm jobs overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mostly due to the decline in Census workers.
• There are differences in employment sectors.
• Employment gains occurred in Manufacturing , health care and mining.
• The Private sector employment gained employment by 71,000. It has increased 7 months in a row.
• Manufacturing increased 7 months in a row after falling 3 straight years.
• Health Care increased by 27,000 jobs.
• Modest Job gains have occurred in the last three months. However, the recovery will take a long time and require patience.
• State and Local governments continue to lose jobs. Since the beginning of the year, 169,000 were lost overall. July, state governments lost 10,000 jobs and local governments lost 38,000 jobs.
• Education: For example: Of the 38,000 local government jobs lost in July, 27,000 were teachers. On the state government level, 2,000 were teachers.
• Update: The Senate passed the State-Aid legislation to extend funding for Medicare cost and funding for teachers this week. It moved the bill to the House. The Department of Education estimates this will save 148,000 teacher jobs, if enacted. The House will reconvene this Tuesday and is expected to pass the bill. The $26 billion bill will provide $10 billion for teachers and $ 16.1 billion for six-months of Medicaid. This will avoid teacher layoffs prior to school opening and aid to the poor, who need help paying for health care.