Jobs Report: The Bad News and the Not So Bad

Like most observers, I assumed the March employment report, released today, was going to be so-so. Wrong. The report came in much weaker than expected, and by nine o’clock this morning, John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, had already issued a statement, noting that “hundreds of thousands fled the workforce last month,” and that “the president’s policies continue to make it harder for Americans to find work.”

You can’t blame Boehner and the Republicans for trying to make the most of it. They haven’t had much going for them recently, and the report was undoubtedly disappointing. The Labor Department’s monthly survey of firms showed total employment rising by just eighty-eight thousand in March, the lowest jump since last June. Coming after several months of encouragingly robust job growth, this was surprising. And the monthly survey of households showed an even darker picture. As Boehner indicated, the total workforce (i.e., the number of people who are working or actively looking for work) fell by almost half a million last month—496,000, to be exact. And according to the household survey, total employment fell by 206,000.

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