US Having heavily managed expectations in advance of Friday’s unemployment numbers, the Obama administration was in the novel position of presiding over a marginal drop in the rate of joblessness – the first time this has happened since Barack Obama took office.
The data, which showed a drop from 9.5 per cent to 9.4 per cent in the overall rate and a lower-than-expected 247,000 increase in the number of unemployed, brings good news and bad news. The good news is that US gross domestic product growth may have turned positive in July as some economists were forecasting.
