FRANK BERNHEISEL

Economic Growth?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs last month and the private sector did better adding 212,000. We are still losing public sector jobs. In fact, this as has been true for a while.

It gets better -- BLS data shows the private sector added a total of 1.89 million jobs in 2011, which was an improvement over 2010's private-sector total of 1.2 million new jobs.

The Washington Monthly put together the chart below, showing monthly job losses/gains in the private sector since the start of the Great Recession. The red columns point to monthly job totals under the Bush administration, while blue columns point to job totals under the Obama administration.

The New York Times reported yesterday that, employment in manufacturing jobs rose in 2010 and 2011, and that the value of U.S. manufactured exports also rose, as shown in the charts.

Could this be the light at the end of the tunnel?