"The Most Job Growth in Three Years!", the media squeals, wetting their panties with delight. Alas, like most things government-generated, this "growth" is of poor quality:
The Labor Department said employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the most since the recession began but below analysts' expectations of 190,000. The total includes 48,000 temporary workers hired for the U.S. Census, also fewer than many economists forecast.
Still, there are 15 million Americans out of work, roughly double the total before the recession began in December 2007....
Even the beleaguered construction industry added 15,000 positions, though that likely reflects a rebound from February, when major snowstorms may have kept many construction workers off payrolls...
....Temporary help services added 40,000....
So, out of 160K new jobs, 40,000 are just temp positions, almost 50,000 are temporary government positions, and 15,000 "new" jobs are really positions that could have been added in February.
So the private sector added about 80,000 new full-time jobs. T0 cut the unemployment rate in half (and remember, the NY Times called Bush's 5% unemployment levels "unacceptable"), will take another 94 months of growth at the level that the media is currently crowing about. In other words, 2018 at best.
In socialist Europe, this is considered good growth. In once-capitalist America, it is shameful.
2 comments:
How do you arrive at 80K new FT jobs?
160K - 40K - 48K - 15K = 57K, which is a long way from 80K.
Even 80K is a drop in the bucket compared to 15 million, which is 15,000K. We've got a long long way to go, even to get back to "unacceptable" levels.
I stand corrected. 72K private sector if we include the 15K in "delayed construction hiring". Take that out and it is your 57K. The construction jobs are real, so I think it's fair to count them; however that's the most important trend to watch since that was a "lag" figure from Feb.
I see Larry Summers said today the economy is on the cusp of "escape velocity". We'll see. If job growth stays this weak for the next few months, and the unemployment number is still "orbiting" 9.5% or so, I thnik that's a remark that should be thrown back in the administration's face all election season.
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