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The US continues its run of surprisingly strong labour market data. The economy added 227,000 payroll jobs in February, and the figures for December 2011 and January 2012 were revised upwards by a combined 61,000. The unemployment rate is stuck at 8.3%, however - one of the oddities of stronger economic performance means that discouraged workers are now returning to the labour force in significant numbers - good news, even if it does mean the headline jobless number looks disappointing.
Fed Chairman Bernanke seemed determined to live up to the reputation of economists as "dismal scientists" earlier this week, in the face of this good news. In a speech to the National Association of Business Economists, he warned that the US job market is still weak, and that further job gains will require stronger consumer and business demand. He noted that it is something of a puzzle that economic growth is still modest, yet job creation is gathering steam: as a rule of thumb, it takes a growth rate of 4% a year to lower the unemployment rate by 1 point. But unemployment has fallen by nearly that since last summer - even though growth is nowhere near 4% yet. Chairman Bernanke speculated that companies cut too deep in the recession, and are now backtracking.
