WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. employers continued to hire but at a sluggish pace that adds to pessimism about the economic outlook and may put pressure of the Federal Reserve to take more steps to support the economy.
Private-sector payrolls rose by an estimated 71,000 in July, the Labor Department said.
Total nonfarm payrolls fell by a seasonally adjusted 131,000 in July, but all the lost jobs were temporary jobs at the U.S. Census.
Left out of this rosy look at the numbers by MarketWatch (“Don’t worry, they were all temp Census jobs!”) was the fact that June’s payroll data was revised down from a loss of -125k jobs to a much more substantial loss of -221k. More than -50k of that adjustment was to private payrolls, which erodes the recovery story substantially.
(Source)
As you know I don’t put much stock in the accuracy of the BLS employment numbers (due mainly to the birth-death model), so take all of this, even the revisions, with a grain of salt.
Still, from a market standpoint, perceptions count, and the new view here is that the US is still dangerously close to stall speed despite massive efforts at stimulus.
The other perception lurking out there is that the US has no political stomach for the type of austerity that the UK is aggressively pursuing:
Mass strikes loom in a ‘winter of discontent’ for UK Government
Whitehall has been urged to bolster employee consultation and communication during the toughest
by cmartenson 
