YOU CALL THIS A RECOVERY?

This is what we’ve gotten for the $7 trillion of debt, ZIRP, Bank bailouts, QE1, QE2, Operation Twist, 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and 47 million people on food stamps. What do we do when the bottom falls out in April/May?

The latest jobs report came out today with the Labor Department reporting that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) increased by 227,000 in February. Today’s chart puts the latest data into perspective by comparing nonfarm payrolls following the end of the latest economic recession (i.e. the Great Recession — solid red line) to that of the prior recession (i.e. 2001 recession — dashed gold line) to that of the average post-recession from 1954-2000 (dashed blue line). As today’s chart illustrates, the current jobs recovery is much weaker than the average jobs recovery that follows the end of a recession. Today’s chart also illustrates that the jobs market continues to improve at a fairly steady pace — a pace very similar to what occurred following the recession of 2001.

More