The Gamut

“Because so many businesses now report their profits on individual tax forms instead of corporate forms,” said Hodge, “recent cuts in the top individual tax rates provided an extra bang for economic growth and hiring.”

U.S. employers added just 32,000 workers to payrolls last month, a surprisingly weak number that led Wall Street to fret about second-half economic growth and to expect a slower pace of interest-rate rises.

The Labor Department on Friday also cut its tally of job growth in May and June by a combined 61,000, adding to the soft tenor of a report that came as unwelcome news for an election-bound President Bush