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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A jobless recovery? Hardly.
By historical standards, the labor market is recovering nicely -- job growth has started earlier than in past recessions.
But the unemployment problem isn't going away. An especially tough recession has raised the bar on the amount of job growth needed to recover, magnifying the pain of the struggling labor market.
"If you had a severe recession, you tend to have a strong recovery," said Robert Brusca of FAO Economics. "So far that hasn't happened."
The unemployment rate hit a high-water mark of 10.1% in October 2009 and has since fallen to 9.5%. Payrolls began growing in November and, excluding the impact of temporary census jobs, the economy has added jobs every month since January.
That's a much quicker peak than previous job market recoveries.
Jobs recovery is stronger than past recessions - Sep. 2, 2010
Also from the article:
Heidi Shierholz, labor economist for the Economic Policy Institute, thinks another shot of stimulus spending by the federal government is called for in order to avoid more job losses.
"We owe the growth we have seen to the measures that the Fed and Congress took in early 2009," she said. "It's great to put the brakes on the jobs losses of last year, but we need to do more."
Now I would like to ask the folks out there in the audience this question:
If a second stimulus is needed to avoid a secondary and possibly more severe recession, would you be in favour of it?
Although the question is irrelevent as the White House has said there will be no second stimulus.
I think many people out there seriously underestimate just how severe this recession is, and that there is no magic fix for it.