We’ve come to the completion of the first half of 2008, so it’s a good time to step back and reflect on what’s most impacted the economy and job market so far this year.

Headlines have been dominated with issues such as rising oil prices, turmoil in the financial services industry, concerns around inflation, continued mortgage meltdown and volatile markets – all set amidst the backdrop of an impending presidential election. These concerns have propelled those from Wall Street to Main Street to take a step back and think about the current and future state of the economy.

Despite all of these negative developments, two of the less volatile yet most important economic indicators have been the job market and GDP growth. While it’s true that we’ve now seen six straight months of job losses, totaling a 438,000 reduction to payrolls, the outlook brightens when you look at the 2001 recession where 300,000 jobs were lost in just one month – it’s taken us almost 6 months to surpass that total. Further, GDP growth continues to be positive with Q108 coming in even higher than Q407, showcasing another bright spot in an otherwise darkened picture.

A lot has happened so far in 2008, but through it all, the job market, which encompasses over 138 million people, has maintained a stability not shared by many other portions of our economy. A stability that will be important to at least maintain in order to make for a better close to the year.