Hot US Jobs Data Throw Cold Water on Recession Theory: Chart

The jobs report for July showed that two official indicators of US economic recession -- nonfarm payrolls and household employment -- are expanding at a rapid rate, confounding Wall Street’s fears of an imminent downturn. Payrolls jumped 528,000, beating all estimates, Labor Department data showed Friday. In a separate survey of households, employment was measured as gaining 179,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, matching a five-decade low. The National Bureau of Economic Research’s business-cycle dating committee, arbiter of downturns since 1929, rejects the notion that two negative quarters of gross domestic product is the definition of ...