Jobs barely rise, but not all hope is lost
STEVE CHIOTAKIS: The nation’s economy created a meager 18,000 jobs in June. And the unemployment rate ticked up a notch — to 9.2 percent. Economists were expecting better especially with a better-than-expected private jobs report that came out yesterday.
Jill Schlesinger is editor at large at CBS/MoneyWatch, and she’s with us from New York as she is every Friday morning. Hi Jill.
JILL SCHLESINGER: Good morning.
CHIOTAKIS: We’ve had all these reports, you know, that have pointed to Japan and weather and temporary factors that are blamed for slowing things down. But do you think this is pointing to something bigger?
SCHLESINGER: Well, I think this has been a slow-growth recovery from the start. Yes those temporary factors negatively impacted the first half of the year with growth at about 2 percent. But remember, last year we only averaged 2.9 percent. That has kept us in a jobless recovery.
CHIOTAKIS: What does this say about any chance of a recovery taking hold, Jill?
SCHLESINGER: Well, I think this is just going to be a long slog. At this year’s pace of job creation, it will take another four years to get back where we were before the recession. You know, but sometimes, we forget just how severe this recession really was. Remember, just a couple years ago, we were losing 6-, 700,000 jobs a month. So listen, it stands to reason when the hole is just that deep, gosh it’s going to take a long time and I’m sorry, but it really affects so many Americans it’s just not going to be fast.
CHIOTAKIS: We were creating at the beginning of the year a quarter of a million I think per month and then the past two or three months it’s really ticked down, right?
SCHLESINGER: Yes and I think that we can expect the second-half recovery, I just don’t think it’s going to be a buoyant recovery.
CHIOTAKIS: Jill Schlesinger is editor-at-large at CBS/MoneyWatch in New York. Jill thanks.
SCHLESINGER: Great to be with you.
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