The monthly jobs report is in and the sound one hears all around Washington is that of spin machines running through the gears.
The non-farm payroll number is 197,000. Which puts it just below the 200,000 that Politico’s Ben White was saying, just last week:
One can predict, with fair confidence, that this analysis will be subject to some revision. And that various new interpretations will be advanced to explain why:
a.) The number came in low.
b.) It isn’t really that bad if you factor in the weather, along with other random, external factors.
And:
c.) It is the fault of the Republicans in Congress.
Largely neglected by the spinners and the rest of Washington where this is pretty much a game and people actually have jobs – some of which entail coming up with nifty slogans like the “Fair Shot” agenda – is the fact that 200,000 doesn’t really buy you very much. If that rate were to be sustained – a large “if” judging by past performance – then it will be better than 5 years before the economy gets back to pre-recession employment levels.
So it would be hard to say that this report lives up to Matt Phllips headline at Quartz which reads:
Be interesting to read what “everyone” now has to say about why they were wrong.
Or weren’t.
