Can you find a job? Yes. Can you find a GOOD job? Maybe not.

Is the economy turning around? Is the job market getting better? On the surface the short answer is yes ... but when you take a closer look, your own answer will depend upon your viewpoint of the topic.

The unemployment rate dropped in July, (source) and July was the 34^th consecutive month the job market has seen a growth, albeit a slow, plodding one. All told, 162,000 new jobs were introduced to the market (source)

Good news, right? Yes and no. First, July was the slowest hiring month since March, and that was lower than the Department of Labor prediction that 180,000 jobs would be generated. Additionally, while the unemployment rate dipped slightly (down to 7.4%), this is due in part because about 37,000 Americans dropped out of the labor pool.

Worse yet, the majority of these new jobs are coming from industries that offer little full-time or high-paying work, which goes a long way toward explaining why the economy is not growing as fast as the additions of these jobs would have you believe.

The retail and leisure/hospitality industries are the two industries experiencing the most growth. And while there have always traditionally been more low-paying jobs available than high-paying ones, recently the ratio has been severely out of whack. July’s figures are the perfect example: Retail and hospitality/leisure workers make up about 22% of our nation’s work force; in July, those two segments were responsible for a whopping 52% of job growth.

Note that the average weekly pay of a US worker is $824. When you compare that to the average salary of a retail worker ($520 per week) and a leisure job ($349 per week), you can see why this is such a disturbing trend.

At the end of the day, if you’re looking for a job you stand a decent chance of landing something. But if you’re looking for a good job, that’s another story.