The latest BLS employment report showed a gain of 244,000 jobs for April, which was trumpeted by the Obama administration and the media as a continuation of a rapidly improving jobs market. While job growth is important, it's also important to realize the jobs hole that needs to be filled. Over the past four months more than 800,000 jobs have been created, but in January 2009 alone, more than 800,000 jobs were lost. Since February 2010, 1.8 million jobs have been created, but 8.8 million jobs were lost prior to that period. That's a job shortage of 7 million and that doesn't include the 125,000 jobs each month that needed to be created to simply absorb new entrants into the workforce.
Additionally, the unemployment rate increased to 9%, since more people began looking for work. Returning job seekers is often considered an improved sign of job availability, but if they aren't hired, they will go back into hiding and the unemployment rate will decline. Because of returning job seekers, the number of officially unemployed increased 205,000 to 13.75 million, which is still historically high when compared to other jobs challenged times.
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