In a tracking survey that estimates the percentage of the U.S. population employed at least 30 hours a week, Gallup reports that the Payroll to Population (P2P) employment rate remained essentially flat, down just 1 tick from 44.8% in June to 44.7% in July. The June number was the best so far this year.

The July reading remains well below the 45.7 measured in October 2012, the highest reading in three years.

Gallup's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in July fell from 7.6% in June to 7.4%. The "official" number due out Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to drop from June's 7.6% to 7.5%.

According to Gallup, its P2P metric is based on the entire population, not just those in the workforce as is the case with unemployment rate computations, nor does the survey include the self-employed, part-time workers, the unemployed, or workers who are out of the workforce.

Gallup said that the full-time self-employment rate fell from 5.4% in June to 5.2%. The percentage of part-time workers who want full-time jobs remained steady with June's reading of 9.4%.

Gallup also reported that the workforce participation rate fell slightly month-over-month from 68.5% in June to 67.7% in July. Workforce participation was essentially flat year-over-year with the July 2012 rate of 67.6%. The July underemployment rate came in at 17.3%, again nearly flat with June's reading of 17.3% and slightly higher than the 17.1% rate in July 2012.