The Department of Labor released the results of its payroll employment survey for July this morning, finding that 32,000 jobs had been added in the last month. This is about 10% of what had been expected, and well below the standard number of jobs needed to maintain a steady level of unemployment (Though the unemployment rate also dropped by 0.1%, this is seen as less significant, since the unemployment survey is smaller, less accurate, and less highly-regarded by economists.) Though the New York Times tried to spin it as nothing more than the economy hitting a "soft patch", and the Washington Post reported that Bush claims that "Economic growth is strong and it's getting stronger," the stock markets told the real story, as the Dow Jones fell 84 points (0.84%), the S&P 500 fell 9.29 points (0.86%) and the NASDAQ fell 21.67 points (1.19%).
To make matters worse, the Department of Labor also revised downwards its estimates of job creation for May and June, knocking another 64,000 jobs off the total. That means that for the last three months, only 315,000 new jobs have been created. To keep up with a growing labor force, the economy usually needs to add 150,000 jobs per month, indicating that up to 135,000 more people will have to be added to the unemployment rolls. Add to this the fact that, since Bush was elected, 1.1 million jobs have been lost, and there are going to be a lot more people with plenty of time on their hands to vote come November 2nd.
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