The media has been bombarding us with bad news ever since the economy came to a halt. Whether you see it on the tube, hear it one radio or read about it online,  it seems to be bad news all around. Even when there’s good news, they always put a negative spin on it. But here’s some news that might be worth cheering about…According to the August 2009 Employment Situation report issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, the economy lost 216,000 jobs in August. That’s right, I said 216,000 jobs were lost in August. So what’s so good about that, you ask? Well, apparently it’s less than what most experts expected. We should be really encouraged by the fact that job losses are diminishing.  Perhaps the worst really is behind us.  But wait…(sorry, there’s some bad news). The overall unemployment rate is 9.7 percent. This is the highest it’s been since 1983. Now that’s pretty grim.

Back to the good news…Although employers cut 216,000 jobs in August, that’s a marked improvement over the month July 2009, when 276,000 jobs were lost.  It’s also better than the 225,000 figure analysts were forecasting. It’s certainly encouraging that it was the lowest level of job losses in a year, but don’t get too excited about these stats. While this news may be good enough to cause the stock market to rally, the reality is that it’s going to take lots of time for the job market to show any significant signs of improvement. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not by any means suggesting that there’s nothing encouraging about the August numbers. I’m just saying we need to be patient. Things will get better.

According to Justin Fox, the economics reporter for Time and author of 'The Myth of the Rational Market', "We’re still having job losses…There’s clearly this trajectory towards that ending, but there’s no guarantee…The hopeful line coming out of a lot of forecasters these days is in another month…2, 3 months, it’s going to be 0 or positive. If that happens, then we'll look back at this as another step in this wonderful trajectory towards the end of the ‘Great Recession’.”

I’m not sure if things will turn around in a month or even three. But I am sure it’s just a question of time before the economy picks up. Once that happens, we’ll see the job market pick up.