%%bloglink%%
This chart shows 33 consecutive months of private sector job growth with an average gain of 145,000 new jobs per month as reported by two different surveys: the payroll company ADP (red line) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (blue line).
This fantastic streak of private sector job growth every month for over almost three years in one more piece of evidence that the economy has improved and continues to improve!
Why then does this recovery feel so “blah” if we have added an average of 145,000 new private sector jobs per month?
This answer is perspective.
My son is 13 and I know he is growing but I didn’t realize how much he had grown until he put on a pair of jeans that were purchased just six months ago that now ended just above his ankles. My wife and I call them high-water pants and I’ve also heard them called nerd-pants, either way he was not wearing them to school that morning and it was a mad rush to find another pair of clean pants that fit.
The 145,000 new jobs per month doesn’t sound that large as compared to the total U.S. population of 314 million people (per 2010 Census) but when you compare the most recent data point (October 2012) to the low point (February 2010) it shows the economy has created 4.8 million new private sector jobs in almost three years. Now that a big number!
I believe a better way to describe the private sector job growth is one of steady forward momentum and I always prefer moving forward over moving backward.
