The July jobs report came in this morning a little below expectations. That’s a good thing for Wall Street. It tumbled 318 points yesterday because of the rebound in GDP to 4 percent for the second quarter reported on Wednesday. The stock market has been doing so well lately (it has more than doubled since its recession low in March 2009) because the Federal Reserve has been keeping interest rates near zero to bolster the economy. With bonds paying so little, equities have been the only game in town. But with a stronger economy, the Fed will begin to raise rates and money would begin shifting out of stocks and into other investments. So right now, good news is bad news on Wall Street.

The economy added 209,000 jobs last month, down from June’s 298,000 (revised upwards in the latest report). Unemployment ticked up to 6.2 percent from 6.1 last month. Job growth has been above 200,000 a month for the last six months, the first time that has happened since 1997. The participation rate went up, but only a single notch, from 62.8 percent to 62.9.

But black unemployment rose from 10.7 percent to 11.4, while black youth unemployment went from 33.4 percent to 34.9. Both these numbers tend to be volatile, but they are still dismal. The number of people working part time for lack of full-time jobs was unchanged at 7.5 million; 3.2 million people have been unemployed for six months or longer, almost one-third of all unemployed.

In all, another so-so jobs report, typical of the Obama recovery.