The January Jobs Report has come out today. And in the context of the Great Recession and our terrible unemployment problem it is encouraging. 243,000 jobs were added, that is following an estimated 203,000 in December, up from 157,000 in November. The unemployment rate is now 8.3% A number in the mid 200,000s would be normal-ish in good times. The increasing number by month suggests an increasing momentum to economic growth. Also encouraging is that this decrease in the unemployment rate comes less from people dropping out of the labor force than December's figures.
The downside is that a figure over 200,000 is good, but not enough to quickly get unemployment down. After a recession one would expect job growth to be higher than normal as the economy catches up with its potential; that is not yet happening. Additionally, last winter there were encouraging jobs figures that burned out by the summer. And before that there was a period of stagnant or negative job growth following a short rebound out of the recession. So far no encouraging patch of job growth has been sustained. It remains to be seen if this time is different.
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