I was one of the economists who thought the February jobs report was relatively good given the weather. Still, that was only compared with an expectation of a very bad report. The WSJ went a bit overboard with a headline: "Outlook Brightens for Jobless."
The report still showed a loss of 36,000 jobs. It is certainly possible that if we remove the effect of the weather, that the number would have been a small positive, but this is nothing to write home about. The economy has to generate about 125,000 jobs a month just to keep even with the growth of the labor force. No one thinks the economy would have created that many jobs in February even if the weather had been great.
Given the severity of the downturn, we should be seeing job growth in the neighborhood of 300,000 to 400,000 a month. There is no plausible story that gets us there any time soon. And, there are many downside risks with the withdrawal of supports for the housing market, state and local government cutbacks, and the possibility of a higher dollar worsening the trade balance. So, the WSJ may want to rework that headline.
There's too much at stake this November for us to quit. As we navigate another presidential election year, thoughtful independent journalism is more important than ever. We're committed to bringing you the latest news on what's really happening across the country this election season, shining a light on the stories corporate media overlooks and keeping the public informed about how power really works in America.
Quality reporting doesn't come for free, and we don't have corporate backers to rely on to fund our work. Everything we do is thanks to our incredible community of readers, who chip in a few dollars at a time to make what we do possible. This month, we're trying to raise $50,000 to help fuel our election coverage, and we've fallen behind on reaching our goal. Any amount you give today will bring us closer to making our reporting possible—and a generous donor has agreed to match all online donations, so your impact will be doubled.
