The August employment report released last week shows unemployment increased to 6.1 percent from 5.7 percent in July, according to The Economist. Jobs have fallen by an average of 76,000 per month since December.
There may be a silver lining, though. Non-farm jobs fell by 84,000, mostly in manufacturing, retail and construction, but government, education and health services all gained jobs, the magazine reports.
"[D]espite eight straight months of declining payroll employment, the pace of contraction has yet to approach that which is typically seen in recessions," the magazine writes. The average monthly decline since December is 0.06 percent, while for the period between March 2001 and February 2002, the average decline was 169,000, or 0.13 percent.
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