Within the next hour, the government will release the jods data for August, 2012. Analysts are expecting a job creation number of around 130,000 jobs without any change in the 8.3% unemployment rate. Some early, but non-reliable, private reports indicate the total jobs created could be higher than expected.

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

Private-sector jobs in the U.S. increased by 201,000 last month, according to a national employment report calculated by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers.

The August number was well above the 145,000 expected by economists. The July estimate was revised to 173,000 from the 163,000 reported last month.

The ADP survey tallies only private-sector jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ nonfarm-payroll data, to be released Friday, include government workers, whose ranks have been falling in recent years as state and local governments have cut staff to close budget gaps.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expect total nonfarm payrolls increased by 125,000 in August, and the jobless rate is projected to remain at 8.3%.

Should the unemployment rate decline or total job creation meet or exceed 130,000 jobs, we already will be ahead of where we were this time last year. If you recall, the beginning of 2011 was very similar to the beginning of 2012, strong increases in economic indicators including job numbers and real estate sales, which lost steam as we approached the summer months.

Here’s to progress and continued forward movement in our U.S. economy.

UPDATE: The jobs numbers were far lower than expected with 96,000 jobs, and significantly down from July 2012. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, which was also unexpected. The unemployment decline is likely due to people simply dropping out of the workforce altogether. This 0.2% is the silver lining, but it’s likely not result of this anemic job creation numbers.