It's all relative

The big economic news here in the US (aside from that whole cash for clunkers circus) is that the unemployment rate is only 9.4%.

The news part of this is that it’s lower than expected. Job cuts for July were 247,000, which was 78,000 less than anticipated by economists. Of course, that doesn’t even out with June’s losses, which were 467,000, 100,000 more than expected.

Any road, this “improvement” isn’t going to be any comfort if you’re one of the 9.4%, especially if you’re one of the 500,000 whose unemployment benefits will run out by September month’s end.