We lost 96,000 jobs.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

They ran away in June, but we didn't even know they were missing until today.

"June was revised down sharply to 221,000 jobs lost (revised from 125,000 jobs lost)."

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/08/july-employment-report-12k-jobs-ex.html

On the other hand, we recently gained a full annualized quarterly percentage point to the GDP... but it was back in the spring.

"Changes to Q1 were extremely broad since the numbers went "final" a month back, GDP jumped a full point from 3.7% to 2.7% due to a large jump in non-residential investment and a huge spike in inventory build (the question is who will be buying) offset by a rather large drop in service consumption."

http://econompicdata.blogspot.com/2010/07/q1-gdp-revised-one-full-point.html

These revisions are usually seen as footnotes but they are more accurate numbers than the first draft and have a lot to do with understanding the current situation. They have also, at least lately, sometimes been pretty damn big changes! (Often larger changes from the initial report than whatever the change was in the initial report from the previous period.)

[Xenotime]

1. But that was June. July's numbers will be better.

Sadly the thugs will say President Obama is not doing his job.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. July was +12,000. So yes, that's better.

It's not good, since we need 150,000/month just to stay in the same place, but it is better.

[Better Today]

8. It's only better, until July gets revised down in September.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

9. 'bout right

[tritsofme]

4. The July report, while not good, was better than June.

June was -221,000 and July was -131,000, lots of distortion from the Census.

June showed a 31,000 gain the private sector, and improved to a better but still anemic gain of 71,000.

There are only two reports left before the election, we are starting to run out of time for good news to improve the election outlooks.

[Donnachaidh]

2. you'll find them with the oil that *evaporated* in the Gulf.

you know, the stuff that *suddenly* ain't there anymore?

[tritsofme]

5. The upward GDP revision for Q1 is troubling in the context of the

drop off we saw in the initial reading from Q2 at 2.4%

This is the third straight quarter of declining economic activity, and this is not positive.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. Correct, and I re-worded something in the OP in response

I had said "on the plus side" to make the point that these massive revisions can go either way.

But the GDP revision was not welcome news in itself, so I changed it to "on the other hand"

[Starry Messenger]

7. k & r