A Turnaround In the Labor Market?

Weekly jobless claims fell to a 4 month low indicating that the labor market may be picking up a bit. One of the most interesting parts of the AP report was the following quote and comment:

"The pace of hiring has picked up in the past few months," said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo. If the drop in claims is sustained, he said, net job gains could rise from this year's average of 90,000 a month to 140,000 next year. Still, that's barely enough to keep up with population growth. The economy needs to create at least 300,000 net jobs a month to make a dent in the unemployment rate, now at 9.6 percent."

While the job market may be seeing a temporary boost for the time being, a full recovery is likely some time away. After all, 300,000 net jobs a month are not likely to be appear out of thin air.