Employment Report - Better But Not Yet Good

Today's employment report showed more new jobs in February than many observers expected. But don't break out the champagne and confetti just yet. There are drags on the economy - continued decline in government employment at all levels, for example. Economic decline in Europe.

A new high in the Dow Jones doesn't put money in the pockets of people who work for a living, no matter what color collar they may wear. The unemployment rate is down to its lowest level in years. But that measure can be really misleading. It doesn't count workers who are too discouraged to seek employment as in the labor force.

And the sequester won't help.

By the way, we don't have a fiscal problem. We have a jobs problem. Put citizens back to work and the deficit mostly (but not entirely) goes away.

I prefer the broader measure of percentage of working-age citizens who are employed. Here is that measure: