August 04, 2007	Saturday	Rajab 19, 1428

WASHINGTON, Aug 3: The US economy eked out 92,000 new jobs in July, weaker than expected due to cutbacks in the public sector, and unemployment was essentially unchanged at 4.6 per cent, Labour Department data showed on Friday.

It was the weakest gain in non-farm payrolls since February and fell far short of the Wall Street consensus forecast of 135,000 new jobs. The economy created revised lower 126,000 jobs in June.

The 4.6pc unemployment rate in July, the highest since January, was 0.1 percentage point higher than the forecast 4.5pc, where it had remained unchanged in the April-June period.

“The employment report was like Goldilocks’ porridge in that it was very mushy,” John Lonsky, an analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, told AFP.

“It disputes the notion that the US economy is strong. Growth is mild, and the economy is far from hot – it’s more like being lukewarm.”

The mixed job market report comes before the next meeting of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate policymakers, on Tuesday.

The Fed has held its key short-term federal funds rate at 5.25 per cent for 13 months, saying its top priority is to guard against inflationary pressures.—AFP