The Lehmann
Letter (SM)
This morning
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the economy added 115,000
jobs in April:
Last month
BLS reported a gain of 120,000. That has now been revised upward to 154,000.
This is not
good enough to restore full employment.
Job Growth
(Click on
chart to enlarge)
(Recessions
shaded)
You can see
from the chart that a strong economy provides monthly gains of 250,000. We had
that in February, and need to get back on track.
Unfortunately
government has been shedding jobs, so that private-sector gains are somewhat
offset by government losses. (In April the private sector added 130,000 jobs
while government employment fell by 15,000.) That’s too bad because government
employment is within the reach of policy control. But fiscal stringency has
forced government cutbacks.
So the
private sector must work that much harder. Our eyes turn once again to housing,
the big laggard. We’ll see what this month has in store.
(To be fully
informed visit http://www.beyourowneconomist.com/)
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