Measured against low expectations, the employment report for February was a relief. The news that the economy added 175,000 jobs last month was better than anticipated, and much better than the dismal reports in December and January. That has raised hopes for a spring bounce, a safe bet given the probable hit to employment in the past few months from bad winter weather.
It is also a safe bet, however, that any such lift will be unsustainable. Whatever catch-up businesses play this spring will be against a backdrop of continued high joblessness, poor quality of jobs available and low pay.
The February unemployment rate of 6.7 percent, for example, would have been 10 percent if the 5.7 million workers who are waiting on the sidelines for job openings were included in the jobless rate. The share of jobless workers out of work for more than six months actually increased, from 35.8 percent in January to 37 percent, or 203,000 people, a situation made all the worse by Republican refusal to reinstate expired federal unemployment benefits this year. Nearly half of the new positions added last month were in temporary jobs and low-paying fields, including bars, restaurants and janitorial services.
Recent experience has shown that it is possible to have a growing economy without strong job growth and decent wages. All that is needed is an asset bubble, amplified by financial speculation and accompanied by excessive tax cuts and unfettered lending.
Recent experience has also shown the folly of that type of growth. And yet, in an economy that still badly needs more good jobs, true economic stimulus is not even on policy makers’ wish lists, let alone their agendas.
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