How Many Jobs Does It Take to Keep Pace With the Growth of the Labor Force?

I have been saying that it takes roughly 90,000 jobs a month to keep pace with the underlying growth rate of the labor force. This means that more rapid growth should lead to declines in the unemployment rate while less rapid growth would lead to increases.

Many other analysts have used higher numbers. For example, in her NYT blognote, Catherine Rampell suggested that the number is necessary number for keeping pace with the growth of the labor force is 150,000 jobs a month. People have often ...