These first two graphs are from last October when we were still on the dark side of The Great Recession.
The point is most obvious on the cumulative graph below. The first decade of our new century was jobless – we had a net loss of jobs during the Bush years. The only other time we had a jobless decade was during the Great Depression.
That said, although the total Unemployment Rate hovers just below 10%, the jobs added in April is very affirming [290,000]. That’s the best report in the last four years! As gratifying as the report is, we’ve got a long way to go to catch up, not just for the recent downturn, but for the poor numbers from the Bush years in general.
by Chris Isidore
May 7, 2010After nearly two years of job losses, the economy has now added jobs in five of the last six months. With upward revisions for both March and February, there has been a gain of 573,000 jobs since the start of the year.
"It clearly shows that this economic recovery can no longer be seen as a jobless one," said Bart van Ark, chief economist of The Conference Board, a leading business research firm. "Companies apparently are finding they can’t squeeze out any more output without adding workers."
The report also includes a separate survey of households that it uses to estimate the unemployment rate, which increased to 9.9%. Economists had forecast the rate would hold steady at 9.7%. The rise in the unemployment rate is actually a sign of improving perception of labor market conditions. The increase was due to an uptick in job seekers who had previously been discouraged and dropped out of the job market. There was a jump of 805,000 workers returning to the labor force in April alone.
"When you think about the force it takes to get 800,000 beaten-down people off the couch and back on the street looking for work, that’s pretty significant," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute…
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