... and it has absolutely nothing to do with the size of total government, which is still shrinking



Calculated Risk



Hey everyone? This is what a real recovery looks like.

The economy added 227,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate held steady at 8.3%, even as more people joined the work force. The day's news is good. The trend line is even better.



The economy has added 730,000 jobs in the last three months, which puts us on pace to add nearly 3 million jobs in 2012, after adding 1.6 million in 2011. The last 12 months of job growth was the best in five years. Long-term unemployment -- the most intractable tragedy of the Great Recession -- is ticking down. Wages are still low, and unemployment is still way too high among minorities and low-skilled workers. And we could still get creamed by a freak gas spike. But this is a recovery worth getting excited about.



Voters are often asked, if they're not already asking themselves, are you better off today than you were four years ago? This is a tricky question to answer now. At the end of 2008, the official unemployment rate was only 6.7 percent, but we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. At the beginning of 2012, the official unemployment rate is 8.3%. But we're gaining 200,000 jobs a month. Are we better off?