Tell me, media? Is this what you meant by the recession being over and the recovery beginning thanks to the stimulus package? If so, I don’t think “recovery” means what you think it means.

Despite Obama apologists in the media singing “Happy Days are Here Again”, retail sales fell rather than rose during the month of July. There was a significant difference between what was expected and what came to be:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Retail sales outside of autos turned in a disappointing performance in July, underscoring concerns about the timing and durability of a recovery from the worst recession since World War II.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales fell 0.1 percent last month. Economists had expected a gain of 0.7 percent.

While autos, helped by the start of the Cash for Clunkers program, showed a 2.4 percent jump — the biggest in six months — there was widespread weakness elsewhere. Gasoline stations, department stores, electronics outlets and furniture stores all reported declines.

The July dip was the first setback following two months of modest sales gains. Excluding autos, sales fell 0.6 percent, worse than the 0.1 percent rise economists had forecast.

Gas station sales plunged 2.1 percent, due more to falling pump prices than weak demand. Excluding the drop at gas stations, retail sales would have posted a modest 0.1 percent increase.

Department store sales fell 1.6 percent and the broader category of general merchandise stores, which includes big chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp., posted a decline of 0.8 percent.

That’s bad news. But the worse news? Jobless claims rose again last week to 558,000 new jobless claims filed. That’s actually 13,000 more jobs lost than economists had predicted:

The Labor Department says new claims increased to a seasonally adjusted 558,000, from 554,000 the previous week. Analysts expected new claims to drop to 545,000, according to Thomson Reuters.

This isn’t a recovery, and it certainly isn’t the millions of jobs Barack Obama promised the stimulus would create months ago. We’re several months into his trillion-dollar stimulus effort and we’re still hemorrhaging jobs while retail spending continues to fall. We’re still deep into the recession. The porkulus failed.

Via Hot Air.