It's the first Friday in August! This means two things: The nice, brisk days of autumn aren't too far away, and the latest jobs report has come out. Employers added 117,000 jobs in July and brought the unemployment rate down one tenth of a percentage point to 9.1%. This is kind of good?

Expectations for the report were between 50,000 and 100,000 new jobs, so thankfully the number exceeded that range just enough to wrest the stock markets from yesterday's free fall. As of this writing, the major stock indices are only down 1-2% on the day instead of 4-5%. Progress! On the other hand, 117,000 doesn't signal that we're any closer to reaching economic escape velocity or keeping up with population growth or making a dent in the horrific, worse-than-Great-Depression levels of long-term unemployed. Still, it's six-figure job growth when all other indicators are doing poorly, so here's a likewarm "huzzah" at 50% volume to the greatest fucking economy in the history of the universe.

Oops, those major stock indices are now down 2-3%. "Huzzah" volume turned down to 30%.

[Image via AP]