Job Growth Slows

Unexpectedly.

U.S. job growth slowed in March, and the labor force shrank, signaling that the economy could be losing momentum. 

Jobs outside of agriculture grew by 120,000 last month—half the number that the economy added the prior month—the Labor Department said Friday, marking the first time since November that job growth fell below 200,000.

At CNBC, it was "far less than expected."

Economists polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm employment to increase 203,000 and the unemployment rate to hold at 8.3 percent.

The weak employment growth last month likely reflected the fading boost from unseasonably warm winter weather. The payrolls count for January and February was revised to show just 4,000 more jobs created than previously reported.

The drop in the unemployment rate, to the lowest level since January 2009, reflected a drop in the labor force. The separate household survey, from which the jobless rate is derived also showed a drop in employment.

So, more people have given up looking for work, and the mainstream media will spin this as a positive because the unemployment rate has gone down.

Here's another view on the shrinking labor force that is not nearly as rosy as you're going to hear from NBC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the New York Times.

Our current doldrums appear to be a kind of bouncing around at the bottom after a fairly steady 10-year decline. The drop is precipitous with the onset of our current troubles, but things have looked pretty bleak since the late 90′s, mitigated by a few years of partial recovery. How do we turn this line back the right way?