Hiring picked up slightly in July, CNBC reported, and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent, an optimistic sign after the worst day on Wall Street in nearly three years.
 
Employers added 117,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said today. That’s better than the previous two months, which were also revised higher.
 
Businesses added 154,000 jobs across many industries. Governments cut 37,000 jobs last month. However, 23,000 of those losses were almost entirely because of the shutdown of Minnesota’s state government.
 
The mild improvement was seen easing investors’ concerns after the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted more than 500 points on Thursday amid concerns that the United States might be entering another recession.
 
“Huge sigh of relief in the markets that we got a relatively good number — not an absolutely good number, but a relatively good number,” said Mohamed El-Erian, co-CEO of bond manager Pimco. “And don’t underestimate how important that is.”

Experts say the economy needs twice as many net jobs per month to rapidly reduce unemployment. The rate has topped 9 percent in every month except two since the recession officially ended in June 2009.