The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell only slightly last week to a seasonally adjusted 382,000. The level suggests hiring remains weak -- too weak to lower the unemployment rate.
The ranks of America's poor remained stuck at record levels, although dwindling unemployment benefits and modest job gains helped stave off what experts had predicted would be the fourth rise in a row in the poverty rate.
U.S. employers added 96,000 jobs last month, a weak figure that could slow the momentum President Obama hoped to gain from his speech Thursday night to the Democratic National Convention. The unemployment rate fell -- but only because more people stopped looking for work.