Here We Go Again

Remember the bad old days of 2008 and 2009, when the economy was losing jobs at a monthly pace in the six–digit range?

But, thank God, we've turned the corner on that one, though. Right?

Wrong.

The Labor Department reported this morning that the economy lost 131,000 jobs in July. Those temporary census jobs are ending, and private employers are not adding many workers to their payrolls.

Temporary help services, which are usually seen as an indicator of coming job growth, fell, and economic growth in general fell to a 2.4% annual rate.

At a time when much of the country is sweltering in a severe summer heat wave, it seems the economy is the only thing that isn't hot right now.

If you're looking for good news, Reuters' Lucia Mutikani offers this: "[T]he pace of layoffs has moderated significantly from the first quarter of last year, when employers were culling an average of 752,000 jobs a month."

In other words, things are better now than when the economy was in free fall more than a year ago.

I don't think this is going to improve the Democrats' standing with the voters.

The Democratic Daily blog says things would be worse if not for the federal government's financial assistance. And I think that's likely to show up as a campaign argument this fall.

But I think it's going to be a hard sell.

I guess things could still turn around between now and November.

But not nearly enough to make a difference.