It is just a drop in the bucket based on the millions of Americans out of work, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 192,000 February increase in payroll employment, resulting in a 0.1 percent in the jobless rate to 8.9 percent. Considering the bad weather in January and taking the recovery into effect in February, the acceleration in jobs growth falls way short of what’s required to get employment back to pre-recession levels.
U.S. Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis said in a statement that, today’s numbers highlight “steady, sustained and widespread job growth.” Added Solis, “I feel very good about where we’re heading.”
Notwithstanding Solis’ good feeling, according to former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, about 125,000 jobs are needed just to keep up with the increase in the population of Americans wanting and needing work. And 300,000 jobs a month are needed continuously, for five years, to get back to where the U.S. was before the Great Recession.
With a shrinking government, a stagnant construction sector and small manufacturing base, only consumer spending can create the kind of demand that would lead to the needed job growth, the Conference Board points out.
But with rising food and gas prices, declining home prices and much of America still facing a mountain of debt, the question remains, ‘from where will consumer demand come?’
