February Jobs Report

Yawn. Another uninspiring jobs report:

The economy added just 21,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported today, down sharply from January’s gain and far below the type of increase that was common in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent, the Labor Department said, mostly because many people have stopped looking for work since late last year, removing them from the government’s official count of the unemployed.

This versus forecasts of +125,000 jobs. Missing projections on the down side is becoming routine:

In October, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow estimated that 200,000 new jobs a month would be created over the coming year; since then, the economy has added 59,000 jobs a month on average, and the administration has distanced itself from the forecasts.

Brad Delong graphically depicts actual payroll numbers against administration forecasts. Suffice it to say, we’re way under the projections.
Combine this phenomenon with soaring health care costs and record gas prices, and the so-called recovery might not be feeling so great for a lot of voters.