WASHINGTON — The national unemployment rate dipped to 9.4 percent in July as employers throttled back on layoffs, cutting just 247,000 jobs, the fewest in a year.

It was the first drop in the jobless rate in 15 months.

It was a better-than-expected showing that offered a strong signal that the recession is finally ending.

The new snapshot, released by the Labor Department today, also offered other encouraging news: workers' hours nudged up after sinking to a record low in June, and paychecks grew after having fallen or flat lined in some cases.

To be sure, the report still indicates the job market is on shaky ground. But the new figures were better than many analysts were expecting and offered welcomed improvements to a part of the economy that has been clobbered by the recession.

Analysts were forecasting job losses to slow to around 320,000 and the unemployment rate to tick up to 9.6 percent.

"There's clearly been a turn for the better. The worst is behind us in terms of layoffs. Now we need to see more hiring," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.

The dip in the unemployment rate — from June's 9.5 percent — was the first since April 2008.