Jobs Were Created; There’s Good News And About News

The good news: the latest jobs report says that over 150,000 jobs were created in March. Tom Schaller explains the bad news:

Of course, the economy needs to add about 150,000 jobs just to keep up with growth of the working-age population, which is why 162K is basically a break-even figure. Moreover, about a fourth of the new jobs are temporary, many of them courtesy of the federal government’s hiring of Census-takers.

The worse news is the share of unemployed persons who are long-term unemployed, defined as having been unemployed for more than six months (27+ weeks). That percent looked like it had capped out in January 2010 at 41.2 percent, dipped slightly in February to 40.9 percent, but jumped in March to 44.1 percent. These figures are all seasonally adjusted, so they account for payroll drop-offs that occur naturally at the end of summer or as the drop in temperature forces certain types of employment to cease for winter.

Still, I’m with the glass half-full folks, it could be much worse.

–Jasper Hart