WASHINGTON — It’s the clearest sign yet the recession is ending: Employers laid off fewer workers in July, the jobless rate dipped for the first time in 15 months, and workers’ hours and pay edged upward.
Those are the kinds of figures that could give Americans the psychological boost necessary for recovery to take root after the worst recession since World War II.
Last month, 247,000 jobs were lost, the fewest in a year and much fewer than the 443,000 that vanished in June.
However, the main reason the unemployment rate fell was because hundreds of thousands of people, some discouraged by failed job searches, left the labor force.
The Labor Department’s report Friday showed that the unemployment rate dropped a notch to 9.4 percent in July, from 9.5 percent the previous month. Together with slight increases in the average workweek and wages, the figures suggested the economy is moving from recession to recovery.
“The worst may be behind us,” President Barack Obama declared. “Today, we’re pointed in the right direction.”
Still, the job market remains shaky. A quarter-million lost jobs are a far cry from the growth needed to put the economy on solid footing.
When the economy is healthy, employers need to add a net total of around 125,000 jobs a month just to keep the unemployment rate stable. And to push the jobless rate down to a more normal 5 percent range, it would take much stronger growth — at least 200,000 new jobs a month.
Yet the improvements in July could give some businesses the confidence to hire again — or at least not to lay off more workers. And consumers, less anxious about losing jobs, could spend more freely.
