The most encouraging employment report since last summer suggested on Friday that a recovery was under way  and perhaps gathering steam  despite the indisposition of the nation’s businesses to resume hiring or even stop shedding jobs.

Employers eliminated 247,000 jobs in July, a huge number by the standards of an ordinary recession, but the smallest monthly loss since last August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. And the unemployment rate, increasing  for months, actually ticked down, to 9.4 /cent from 9.5 /cent in June, mainly because so many people dropped out of the hunt for work, ceasing to list themselves as unemployed.

“Employers are no longer in a panic,” said Ian C. Shepherdson, chief domestic economist for High Frequency Economics. “The pressure they felt to get rid of workers in a hurry is diminishing. What we don’t see yet is enough momentum in the economy to convince companies to hire again.”

Tags:  Economy employers encourage Recovery