Math is not my strong suit. So maybe someone can help me with this.
A new line item in the White House talking points is to say that the economy is on the right track because it has produced some 366,000 jobs in the last five months.
In his noon press briefing yesterday, Scott McClellan listed as one of the signs the economy was on the right track the fact that “there have been more than 366,000 new jobs created in the last five months.” And just an hour earlier, in a brief chat with reporters before meeting with the President of Tunisia, the president said: “I’m pleased by the fact that since August there’s been 366,000 new jobs, in one survey.”
Now, the problem here is that everyone at the White House from the president on down is trumpeting this number like it’s a good thing, when in fact, it’s not.
If I’m not mistaken there’s a general consensus among economists that in our current economic circumstances we need roughly 150,000 new jobs created each month just to break even — basically, just to keep up with a growing working age population.
So just to break even on the employment front we needed about 750,000 new jobs to have been created over the last five months. In fact, the economy created just less than half that number. So basically, 366,000 new jobs in five months isn’t very good at all.
The president is pleased that on his watch the economy can’t even produce enough jobs to keep up with a growing population? Can’t he set his sights a bit higher?
