Overall trend improvement continues in payrolls, with the 155k gain (with +14k in net revisions) in line with the average gain over the past 6mths. The Unemployment rate rose from 7.753% to 7.849% as the household survey gained only 28k jobs while the labor force grew by 192k.

Other Notable Positives

• Diffusion index rises from 56.6 to 63.2
• Average hourly earnings +0.3% for second straight month
• Index of aggregate hours +0.4% for second straight month (major plus for personal income)
• Median duration of unemployment fell from 18.9 weeks to 18.0