The Economist: The American Economy - Doldrums!

How long ago seem the promising months of early 2012, when the American economy added jobs at a healthy 225,000 monthly clip, and how disappointing when the labor market slumped back into its now traditional spring-and summer slump. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' June employment report released the June employment report this morning, but it is anti-climatic in its confirmation of the already-too-obvious: Job creation is back in the rut that seems the default position for this recovery. Employers added just 80,000 jobs in June, up negligibly from an increase of 77,000 in May and 68,000 in April. Private employment growth did a bit better once again, coming in at an 84,000 increase for the month. That compares quite unfavorably to the more than 250,000 private positions added in January and February. Government continued to drag down payroll growth, albeit it was a slower pace than earlier in the year. IN the year to June, private employment was up 1.9m, while government at all levels slashed 169,000 jobs. Since the labor market hit a bottom in February of 2010, private employment is up 4.4m jobs, while government employment is down over 500,000. Manufacturing job growth has slowed sharply since the first quarter, unsurprising given the broad weakness in industrial activity in recent months, in America and elsewhere. Perhaps more disconcerting is the disappointing performance of employment in construction. Home prices and sales seem to have reached a bottom and commenced rising, and new permits are up strongly this year, but that has yet to translate into strong residential construction employment growth. The household portion of the BLS survey largely echoes the establishment side, conditions are soft, far softer than they were earlier in the year, or than we'd expect given the gap between potential and actual employment.