US Jobless Rate Eases to 9.4 Percent

The nation's latest employment numbers, released Friday, were the most encouraging in months, showing a much smaller decline in jobs than earlier this year and even a slight drop in the unemployment rate.

The U.S. jobless rate eased to 9.4 percent in July from 9.5 percent the previous month, the Labor Department 's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported , Bizjournals.com reports.

Meanwhile, a quarter-million jobs lost is a sobering amount, but considering that monthly job losses climbed higher than 700,000 in January of this year, they provide clear evidence that the economy is improving, even at a slow pace. You can see the economy beginning to dig itself out of jobless ditch in the WSJ graph to the right, which shows monthly nonfarm job losses per month since 2008 , Atlantic Online reports.

But most economists say corporations may still cut more jobs, as they try to make themselves lean and mean during the the early stages of any recovery. Businesses traditionally add jobs only well into recoveries, so it may be a while before the nation sees actual jobs growth again, economists have warned , Boston Herald reports.