April employment report

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its April employment report. Private sector job creation equaled the revised total figure for March (230,000). The public sector total was 66, 000 spurred in part by the addition of temporary census jobs. The 290,000+ number is the best since March of 2006. The revision of February figures from -14,00 to +39,000 makes march the 4th straight month of job gains and the 5th out of the last 6. Despite this, unemployment rose to 9.9% (from 9.7) for the first three months of the year. The growth in unemployment is attributable to reentrants to the workforce.

Ten years - zero net job growth.

Each new year like each new baseball season begins with hope. May 2010 and the remainder of the decade that follows help us put aside the harsh memories of the last decade.  The Washington Post has a piece on the "aughts" which illustrates the utter lack of job growth during the past decade.

"There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

And the net worth of American households -- the value of their houses, retirement funds and other assets minus debts -- has also declined when adjusted for inflation, compared with sharp gains in every previous decade since data were initially collected in the 1950s."

We are a little better off in Louisiana. It appears we may be a little ahead of the nation's recovery.  Nevertheless, many here and throughout the country would be hard pressed to say they are better off now than they were in 2000. And those that do likely belong in the Wall Street camp, rather than the Main Street camp.