"But the back story behind the figures provides cold comfort.
First, the drop to 9.7 percent unemployment does not reflect the creation of new jobs that normally accompanies an economic recovery.
Second, anybody who thinks the job situation is going to improve dramatically in coming months is not paying attention to what's going on behind the unemployment rate. ...."the labor force participation rate is the lowest since mid-1985." This means that fewer Americans are in the labor force.
Third, among the few sectors of the economy showing net employment growth over the past year is the federal government.
The federal civil service is rapidly expanding as Obama increases the size of government, with 33,000 new positions being added in January alone.
Only 9,000 of those new slots were for temporary census jobs.
In other words, what we are seeing is good times for the public sector and the growing prospect of a continuing and perhaps even deepening recession for everybody else.
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