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Unemployment figures for July, which are due out on Friday, are unlikely to show a lot of strength. Analysts expect business hiring won't outpace declines in jobs, which could mean the unemployment rate rises slightly. Economists and Obama administration officials say the jobs recovery will occur, but gradually.

The national unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent in June, its lowest level in almost a year. Private employers added a modest number of jobs, but a wave of census layoffs caused monthly payrolls to drop for the first time in six months.

Top White House Economics Adviser Larry Summers has officially announced his planned departure. Robert Scheer of The Nation argues that Summers cannot leave soon enough. His anti-regulation stance and friendliness toward Wall Street is hurting the American people.

The jobless rate has now topped 9 percent for 19 straight months, the longest stretch on records going back to 1948. The unexpectedly disappointing numbers added fodder for the partisan debate on Capitol Hill over extending the Bush-era tax cuts and jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

About 43.6 million people were poor last year in the United States. But the poverty rate didn't go as high as some had predicted. Demographers with the U.S. Census Bureau, which released the figures Thursday, said unemployment benefits helped to cushion some of the impact of the recession.

After a record January, aid groups say donations for Haiti have slowed to a trickle — but the need hasn't gone away. A new study puts recovery and rebuilding costs as high as $14 billion.

With the unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, people are starting to wonder why the massive federal economic stimulus package hasn't put more people to work. One of the programs that was supposed to produce tens of thousands of jobs quickly, is encountering some unexpected hangups.

The growing national debt will hinder our attempts to solve unemployment. According to William Galston of The New Republic, the only solution is a new economic policy that combines private savings with public investment.

Many Ridgewood, N.J., residents built their lives as brokers, bankers and in scores of other financial jobs. But the recession has altered lives and changed the mood in the bedroom community.

Investment advisor Matthew Weitzman has been charged with stealing $6 million from clients. One of his clients was Ron Lieber, who writes a personal finance column for The New York Times. Lieber tells David Greene it pays to read every word of financial statements. Lieber was not a victim of fraud.