Plus: Factory Orders Fall in June and Unemployment Rate Drops in July.

Factory Orders Fall in June
New orders received by factories in the United States fell 0.8 percent to $440.7 billion in June, pulled down by weak demand for transportation equipment, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported last week. May’s figure was revised down to show 0.6 percent growth instead of 0.8 percent.

June bookings for manufacturers’ goods matched the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Transportation equipment, down two of the last three months, had the largest decrease, falling 8.6 percent to total $45.3 billion in June. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.1 percent after being flat in May. New orders for durable goods dropped 1.9 percent to $192.4 billion, while new orders for non-durable goods inched up to $248.2 billion. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft — a proxy for business spending plans — rose 0.4 percent in June.

Unfilled orders rose 0.3 percent after increasing 0.9 percent in May.

“The moderate rise in unfilled orders suggested an easing in the disruption in production caused by a shortage of inputs from Japan after the devastating earthquake in March,” Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, shipments increased 0.2 percent to $444.3 billion after two consecutive monthly decreases. Inventories rose 0.2 percent to $594.4 billion, the highest since the series started in 1992. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.34, unchanged from May.

A separate report earlier last week showed manufacturing activity hit a two-year low in July.

Unemployment Rate Drops Slightly
The U.S. economy added 117,000 new jobs in July, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent in June, according to the U.S. Department of Labor last week.

Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had estimated a gain of 75,000 non-farm payrolls added in July, with the unemployment rate remaining at 9.2 percent.

Total private employment rose by 154,000 last month, reflecting job gains in several major industries, including health care, retail trade, manufacturing and mining. Government employment continued to decline.

Manufacturing employment increased by 24,000 jobs in July, most of which were in durable goods manufacturing. Manufacturing has added 289,000 jobs since its most recent trough in December 2009, and durable goods manufacturing added 327,000 jobs during this period.

The economy needs to add about 125,000 jobs per month to match population growth and 250,000 jobs to lower the unemployment rate.

In the week ending July 30, the latest week for which data are available, the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits held steady at the crucial 400,000 mark, the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday. Generally, requests must fall below this number to indicate healthy job growth and strong hiring conditions. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, was 407,750, down from the previous week’s upwardly revised average of 414,500.

OSHA Announces Measures to Strengthen Whistleblower Program
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced that it is implementing new measures to strengthen the agency’s Whistleblower Protection Program. The whistleblower provision laws enacted by Congress prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government.

Following its audits of OSHA’s whistleblower program in 2009 and 2010, the Government Accountability Office identified challenges related to transparency and accountability, training for investigators and managers, and the internal communications and audit program. OSHA also conducted an internal review that examined national and regional program structures, operational procedures, investigative processes, budget, equipment and personnel issues.

In a report released last week, OSHA documents the top-to-bottom review of the program and outlines several changes designed to improve it, including those related to restructuring, training, program policy and internal systems.

“The ability of workers to speak out and exercise their legal rights without fear of retaliation is crucial to many of the legal protections and safeguards that all Americans value,” OSHA Assistant Secretary David Michaels said in an announcement of the report. “The new measures will significantly strengthen OSHA’s enforcement of the 21 whistleblower laws that Congress charged OSHA with administering.”