U.S. employers added 227,000 jobs in February, which made it three months in a row of healthy hikes. The jobless rate stayed way too high at 8.3 percent because streams of people headed back into the workplace, buoyed by the good news.
Among the brighter spots in last week’s announcement was that government, at all levels, cut only 6,000 jobs last month. Good news because government has been one of the larger sources of layoffs, averaging 22,000 job cuts a month over the past year alone as tax revenues fell and budgets shrank.
U.S. stock prices moved up at the news, but only modestly. Investors are still watching Greece and the rest of Europe with wary eyes. In this interconnected world, a puncture anywhere lets air out of the whole balloon. That said, the U.S. outlook continues to brighten.
Spring will be a test. As the weather warms, construction should pick up. If the building industry stays in the doldrums, economic growth will creep rather than pick up speed. Those supposed to know, remain somber. There has been no revival in the always-summer states yet. But perhaps that was to be expected: California, Nevada and Florida experienced the biggest housing booms, it will take them the longest to work off their surplus housing stock and push prices down to affordable.
Maybe the old, stodgy Midwest will begin building again. The economies in our region have benefited mightily from high commodity prices and decent crops. Manufacturing is regaining strength. No boom is expected, but we’ll settle for steady, modest growth.
—Emerson Lynn, jr.
P.S. Imagine how well the U.S. of A. would be doing if all of us were working together. Now that’s a campaign plan someone should try.
