Latest Employment Report a Mix of Good and Bad (But Mostly Good) News

Anyone else looking forward to the day we can say that we’re actually out of the woods with the current financial crisis (if only so we can put a moratorium on the phrase “out of the woods”)?

Well, we might have to hold out a little while longer, because as the latest employment report indicates, we’re, um…well, you know. Today, the Labor Department released its Employment Situation report for the month of February, and, as is often the case lately, there’s both good news and bad news.

The good news is that the number of jobs in February fell far below analysts’ expectations and that the unemployment rate did not go up. Despite this fact, the bad news, of course, is that unemployment is still at a remarkably high 9.7 percent and that employers cut 36,000 jobs.

Among the highlights of the report:

Employers cut 36,000 jobs in February (below analysts’ expectation of 50,000), compared with 26,000 jobs shed in January.
Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed Americans has nearly doubled to 14.9 million and the economy has shed 8.4 million jobs.
The U.S. unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in February, and nonfarm payroll employment dipped slightly (-36,000).
Severe winter weather in parts of the country may have affected payroll employment and hours; however, it is not possible to quantify precisely the net impact of the winter storms on these measures.
Looking at various industries: Temporary help services added 48,000 jobs, while Health Care also continued to trend upward in February. Construction and Information both fell, at 64,000 and 18,000 jobs lost, respectively, while both Manufacturing and Retail were essentially unchanged.
Despite the up-and-down numbers over the last few months (36,000 jobs shed in February…26,000 shed in January…109,000 shed in December… 64,000 added in November, etc.), conditions are stabilizing overall.

“The large declines are behind us,” said Joel Naroff of Joel Naroff Economic Advisors in a podcast interview with MarketWatch today, in reference to the job loss numbers. Naroff added that the latest report gives a strong indication that, while we may not see strong job growth anytime soon, we will see positive growth.

In fact, employers are expected to add as many as 100,000 jobs a month later this year (and if President Obama okays the House’s new $15 billion plan to offer tax breaks to employers, it could further impact job growth in the coming months).

Thoughts?