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The market got a boost early Friday after the government reported that the economy had added 117,000 jobs in July, more than most economists had been predicting, and the unemployment rate fell to 9.1% from 9.2%. The Labor Department also revised May and June job numbers up by a cumulative 56,000. Economists had been expecting closer to 75,000 job gains and an unchanged unemployment rate.

Some of the news within the reports was less positive: one reason that the unemployment rate dropped is that 193,000 people left the labor force.