SPINNING THE JOBS NUMBERS – AT 8:40 A.M. ET:  The new monthly jobs report is out.  From The New York Times: 

The American economy added 175,000 jobs last month, a pace that was better than economists had expected and well above the anemic job gains recorded in December and January.

Still, the latest figures for hiring were down from last year’s average of roughly 190,000 and fell a bit short of what policy makers had been hoping to see at this stage of the recovery. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 6.7 percent.

The February report by the Labor Department had been eagerly awaited and was viewed as a wild card, with economists struggling to estimate the impact of wintry weather in many parts of the country as well as seasonal adjustments by government statisticians.

Before Friday’s report, the consensus among economists on Wall Street called for employers to have added 149,000 positions in February, with the jobless rate remaining flat at 6.6 percent.

COMMENT:  We start with a baseline of 150,000 jobs, which is what is needed each month just to keep up with population growth.  So we actually added an anemic 25,000 jobs last month on top of the baseline. 

This is still a jobless "recovery," if it's a recovery at all.  And many of the jobs created turn out to be part-time or low-paying jobs.  Nothing to brag about.

March 7,  2014