Spotlighting the Dems' Jobless Recovery

Democrats hoping for an economic bounce before the November midterms may not get one. On Friday, the White House is expected to receive a report announcing that the economy continued to shed jobs in February.

A note to all Republican candidates: now would be a good time to be talking about jobs and specifically, how the Democrats are not creating any of them.  On Friday, the White House is expected to recieve a report which Goldman Sachs predicts will announce that the economy shed as many as 100,000 jobs in February.  This enormous figure wasn't helped by all of the snow that kept many in the northeast stuck in their homes for much of the month, but nonetheless, the new figures could move the 9.7% unemployment figure closer to the dreaded 10% mark.  In other words, Democrats that were hoping to be able to campaign amid a serious economic recovery in the months heading into the November mid-terms probably won't be getting one.

Furthermore, the weekly numbers suggest that unemployment is still climbing, as unemployment claims moved from 22,000, to 496,000 for the week of Feb. 20.  The four-week average also rose by 6,000.

Census hiring will partially alleviate the impact on job numbers, but the bottom line is that voters are unlikely to be listening when Democrats remind them that employment is a lagging indicator (it is, but they still won't care) since it also happens to be one of the issues that they happen to care most about.  Republican candidates should learn to use “jobless recovery” early and often and they should all be on message: create jobs, grow the economy, secure our nation’s defense.  Any candidate that wins those issues will win election.