NFP = +115,000

Another tepid jobs report. The economy created just 115,000 new jobs last month. The unemployment rate is down to 8.1%.

Since February 2009, the economy has created 152,000 new jobs. Between January 2008 and February 2010, the economy lost 8.779 million jobs. We’ve made back 3.745 million (or 43%).

The jobs market peaked 12 years ago when the unemployment rate hit 3.8%. Since then, the civilian non-institutional population has grown by 30.766 million while the labor force has grown by just 11.614 million. The number of employed is up by 4.595 million and the number of unemployed rose by 7.019 million.

For us to have the same jobs-to-population ratio as 12 years ago, we’d need to have 15.324 million more jobs, or 23.669 million fewer people.

The number of Americans either unemployed or not in the workforce now stands at a staggering 101 million. That’s an all-time record.

Posted by on May 4th, 2012 at 8:44 am


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