October Job Numbers Not That Rosy

Hold the champagne on last month's job creation numbers. 151,000 new private sector jobs are welcome, but a close look shows a long recovery ahead.

Hold the champagne on last month's job creation numbers. 151,000 new private sector jobs are welcome. But take a closer look where they came from: 35,000 of the net new jobs were created by temporary help services, suggesting that businesses continue to hesitate to expand their own payrolls.

Another 24,000 net new jobs were created in the healthcare sector, a sector already overbuilt. (And since a majority of the dollars spent on healthcare came from government even before the Obama health plan went into effect, you have to wonder whether these really count as "private sector" jobs.)

Meanwhile, manufacturing employment continued to decline, down another 7,000 jobs.

It's going to be a long, hard slog back to growth and full employment.