10 consecutive months of private-sector job growth

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"Sir John of Orange" Boehner aka by his WWF wrestling name "crybaby" likes to ask, "Where are the jobs?" Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly has the answer:

Today's report on October's employment numbers… was far more encouraging.

Employers added the most jobs in five months in October, with the education and health care sectors leading the way.

But the unemployment rate, measured by a separate survey of households, refused to budge. It remained stuck at 9.6 percent for the third straight month.

The Labor Department says its survey of employers showed a net gain of 151,000 jobs last month, the most since May. Wall Street analysts expected a smaller gain.

This was easily the most encouraging jobs report since April. The private sector, meanwhile, added 159,000 jobs, also the strongest since April, and the second best month since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2007. The public sector, which had hemorrhaged jobs over the summer, lost only 8,000 jobs, which obviously isn't good, but was better than it's been.

Also note, the numbers for August and September were both revised upwards significantly, putting the larger trend of recent months in a more positive light.

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It's important to emphasize that the economy adding 151,000 jobs in October really is good news, but it's only a step in the right direction. Given the hole we're digging ourselves out of, coupled with population growth, the economy is going to have to generate much stronger totals to bring the unemployment rate down.

[F]ollowing up on the tradition we started a couple of months ago, many of you have emailed to suggest it's time for a slightly different chart — one showing just the private sector job market. The Washington Monthly:

To be clear, public-sector jobs count, and it's absurd to suggest otherwise. When workers lose their jobs, it's devastating for them, and it undermines economic growth for everyone — whether the job was paid for by taxpayers or not.

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In October, the economy added 159,000 private-sector jobs, far exceeding expectations. It's the best private-sector total since April, and the second strongest report since the start of the Great Recession in late 2007. It was also the tenth consecutive month of private-sector growth — a streak unseen in more than three years.

All told, the economy has added more than 1.1 million private-sector jobs in 2010. For comparison purposes, note that the economy lost nearly 4.7 million private-sector jobs in 2009, and lost 3.8 million in 2008.

With that in mind, here is a different homemade chart, showing monthly job losses/gains in the private sector since the start of the Great Recession. The image makes a distinction — red columns point to monthly job totals under the Bush administration, while blue columns point to job totals under the Obama administration. (Note: the chart reflects revised totals from August and September, per data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

You will note that the "education and health care" sectors led the way in job growth. Here in Arizona, however, our "shadow governor" Sen. Russell Pearce is about to embark on draconian budget cuts to education and health care that will put people out of work in those sectors and add to Arizona's unemployment situation. It is a descent into madness.