Today’s job reports for March finds there were 116,087,000 private-sector jobs. That figure is 110,000 higher than the 115,977,000 employed in January 2008, the previous peak.
That is by far the longest it has ever taken (at least since the government began releasing monthly figures in 1939) for private-sector employment to recover fully from a recession. The old record was 54 months, or 4.5 years, after jobs peaked in 2000 and the 2001 recession began.
Total jobs have still not recovered, because government employment continues to fall. In March, the government total was flat, as an increase in state and local jobs was offset by a decline in federal employment, but the 12-month change was still negative.
So over all, we need another 437,000 jobs to get back to the January 2008 peak. That seems likely to be in June, assuming current trends continue.
Of course, getting back to the old level would hardly be a great victory, because the population has been growing. But it would be a start.
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