(Washington Examiner) — So, how bad is today’s labor report? White House Council of Economic Advisers chairman Austan Goolsbee released a statement this morning that tries to put the best face on the numbers:
Today’s employment report shows that private sector payrolls increased by 154,000 in July and the unemployment rate ticked down to 9.1 percent. The economy has added 2.4 million private sector jobs over the past 17 months, despite a slowdown in economic growth from substantial headwinds in the first half of the year.