The U.S. economy shed jobs in July even while the unemployment rate fell. Payrolls across the American economy contracted by 23,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1 percent. The public sector’s payrolls fell sharply, and the services sector hiring was soft, with a large contraction in retail and leisure. Economists had forecast the economy would add 88,000 jobs and predicted the unemployment rate would hold steady at 4.2 percent. The decline in unemployment was driven by a decline in the labor force participation rate, which slipped from 61.5 percent to 61.4 percent.