This was a good jobs report and it should help Obama.
Unemp rate 7.8%
Labor force participation rate went up: 63.6%
Nonfarm payrolls +114k, last month revised up HUGE to 142k
Hourly earnings up strong 0.3%
Household survey added 873,000 jobs. Largest increase since 1983!!!
Weekly hours up
Now it appears we have made back all the private sector jobs lost since Obama took office (Chart 1.)
And if it were not for the decline in government jobs, which were cut massively under Obama, then we'd be looking at something like 6 million jobs created since the stimulus really kicked in. A bigger stimulus would have brought the unemployment rate down that much futher, but Obama was too timid to push for it. He still doesn't argue strongly enough to show people how well the stimulus worked.
By the way...look at the spike in government jobs that were due to the hiring of temporary Census workers in Chart 2. Show this to someone next time they tell you government can't create jobs!
Chart 1.
