Report: Private Sector Added 71,000 Jobs in July

Disappointing news from the Labor Department: the private sector added a net total of 71,000 jobs last month, far below the 200,000 needed to reduce unemployment, and the total number of jobs fell in July by 131,000 when factoring in the public sector. The national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.5 percent, largely as a result of people leaving the work force.

Additionally, the Labor Department revised down the job figures for June. Total payroll jobs actually fell by 221,000 that month instead of the 125,000 previously estimated.

“The private sector is still hobbled and certainly is not nearly strong enough to overcome the drain on the government side,” Robert A. Dye, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh, told the New York Times.

The federal government laid off 143,000 temporary census workers last month, which when coupled with cuts at the local government level, helped lead to the overall decrease in payroll in July.

The bright spots came in the manufacturing sector, which added 36,000 last month, and health care, which added 27,000 jobs.