Unemployment at 9.5%

Megan McArdle on the new jobs numbers:

The economy lost 131,000 jobs in July, all of them in the government.  Private payrolls added north of 70,000 workers--anemic in the face of our current unemployment rate, but hey, at least it's something.  But government jobs fell by 200,000, mostly, as far as I can tell, due to the loss of the census jobs, though we also lost about 50,000 workers from state and local governments (I presume due to the end of the school year).

Unemployment is always a lagging indicator.  And it's clear now that the census jobs were pumping up the jobs figures.  But taken together with the new GDP figures, I think we can now dismiss any hopes of a summer recovery.

In other news, Obama economic adviser Christina Romer, who predicted that with the stimulus unemployment would drop to near 7% right now, is quitting her job.