February Sees Job Growth, Unemployment Drops But Remains High

For the fifth straight month, there was job growth in the United States. It is clear that the Obama Administration is working as hard as ever to create new jobs and bring the unemployment rate back to normal numbers.

In February alone, approximately 192,000 new jobs were created in the United States.

As a result, the unemployment rate hit 8.9%. This is a tenth of a percent decrease from January. In addition, this is the first time since April 2009 that the rate has been below nine percent. Since November, the unemployment rate has dropped almost one whole percent from 9.8%.

The rate was actually expected to rise a bit with more people losing seasonal jobs.

In total, 222,000 new jobs were created in February, but 30,000 jobs were in fact cut.

In addition, in December and January, 58,000 more jobs were created than initially assumed.

Job growth is finally looking to gain some consistency. More and more permanent jobs are being created as the layoffs are being less frequent.

However, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisors’ Chairman, Austin Goolsbee, “the overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically over the past two years, but there will surely be bumps in the road ahead. It is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”

While it should not be ignored that the private sector has added over 450,000 jobs since December, it also cannot be overlooked that unemployment is still high.

In total, 664,000 people are no longer on unemployment. This can be attributed to people going into work for themselves or taking jobs at new companies that are not yet being tracked by the government’s Labor Department.

With less people losing jobs and more people gaining jobs, it is clear that the economy of the United States of America is well on its way to recovery, but not exactly there yet.

Some Americans are now getting off of unemployment and getting back into the work force. However, others are getting off of unemployment because they are simply quitting their job hunts. Then there are those who are still sitting on unemployment waiting for one of their potential employers to call them back.

In due time, the American economy will recover. But as of right now, while many are finding successes at increasing rates, there are still those who are either still waiting or have completely given up all hope.