News headlines

      Here's a selection of reaction to data released by the U.S. Labor Department on Friday showing 131,000 nonfarm jobs lost in July and a 9.5% unemployment rate. See full story.

• "Overall, this employment report only reinforces a sluggish recovery. Private sector job and income gains are not weak enough to point to a renewed downturn, nor are they strong enough to suggest the recovery is free of such risk. The Fed should remain dovish. The most likely option we see is to announce they will reinvest cash flows from their [mortgage-backed securities] portfolio." - Stephen Gallagher, chief U.S. economist at Societe Generale.
• "Today's employment report is absolutely a mixed bag. On the one hand, while the labor market recovery is "better" than the 1991 or 2003 recovery, job growth remains anemic, especially so considering the depth of the decline. On this front, the improvement we've seen of late in terms of recovering to pre-recession levels of employment has stalled out. As of July, we remain 5.59% below the peak level of employment while the labor force continues to shrink. Indeed, if we return the labor force to its May 2009 high, the unemployment rate would be over 10.3% rather than the 9.5% reported." -- Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak.
• "We expect the unemployment rate to be very sticky in this cycle. A good chunk of the enormous number of people who left the labor market during the long downturn will probably drift back into the market as they sense improved employment opportunities. However, many will not get re-employed right away, and hence will add to the tally of the unemployed until they find a job." - Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc.
• "The report was weaker than expected -- but not as disappointing as implied by the payroll employment component because of offsetting strength in hours and earning. In fact, aggregate weekly payrolls (the gauge that captures the combination of payrolls, hours and earnings) rose 0.6% -- a tick better than we expected and matching the high seen in the prior five months." - David Greenlaw, chief U.S. fixed income economist at Morgan Stanley.
• "As always, we caution investors this is survey data and represents a minor component relative to the roughly 130 million nonfarm employees in the U.S. and the difference from consensus may be nothing more than a rounding error... We would be buyers of staffing stocks should the disappointing headline number weaken the group." - Jeffrey Silber, staffing sector analyst at BMO Capital Markets.
• "How many more months of losing tens-of-thousands of jobs have to go by before the Obama Administration removes the blinders, stops the propaganda effort and concedes that this deficit spending, tax-raising, bailout-first mentality is unsustainable and threatening the future solvency of this nation? For all of the effort being expended by the Obama Administration to convince Americans that their policies have 'funded' or 'created and saved' new jobs, the sobering reality is 18 months after the stimulus was signed into law, our economy is still hemorrhaging jobs." -- Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.), ranking member of Oversight and Government 

Source http://www.marketwatch.com/story/reaction-to-fridays-payrolls-data-2010-08-06
U.S. stock futures shot decisively higher Friday after the government's August employment report yielded better-than-forecast data on the jobs front, further lessening worries about the economic recovery.

"The data we've been receiving recently has been better than expected, and anything that exceeds expectations is bullish for the market," said Todd Schoenberger, managing director at LandColt Trading LLC.

The Labor Department said private employers added 67,000 jobs last month, with 54,000 jobs lost overall, mostly due to layoffs of temporary workers hired to conduct the Census. The unemployment rate climbed to 9.6%, as expected. Read about smaller-than-feared losses.

After lapsing slightly lower ahead of the data, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 140 points
Source .http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-futures-edge-up-ahead-of-key-payrolls-data-2010-09-03?siteid=yhoof