Unemployment drops for first time in 15 months

08.09.09
By Lewis Green

Figures released Friday from the U.S. Labor Department suggest more Americans may be able to pay off credit card debt and make home loan payments as the jobless rate fell for the first time in over a year.
 
For the first time in 15 months, the country's unemployment rate fell with government figures putting July's rate at 9.2 percent - down from 9.5 in June and below industry expectations which had the rate rising to as much as 9.8 percent.
 
Although the White House says it still expects the unemployment rate to top 10 percent sometime in the next year, Robert Gibbs, spokesman for President Obama, said the figures from the Labor Department are an indication that the economy has been "pulled back from the edge."
 
Despite the fact that the unemployment rate fell, the figures showed that 247,000 jobs were lost in July. However, this number is almost half of the 443,000 lost in June.
 
But the Washington Post points out that these figures do not indicate that the recession is over. That declaration won't come until the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) is positive for a full quarter, according to the paper.

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More Americans might be working soon as the unemployment figures drop