To return to 5 percent unemployment, it will take ten years of adding over 200,000 jobs every single month.

That was what I heard on the radio this morning. According to some economist or another, that's how the numbers shake out. The sad truth of it is that it's probably even worse than that. The back of my mighty envelope says that if the economy adds 200,000 jobs per month, it nets out (after accounting for population growth) to 1.2 million currently unemployed people returning to work each year. Over ten years, that would be 12 million people back to work.

Unemployment rate rises as more join ranks of unemployed

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' August jobs report on Friday contained some tepid good news: The private sector added 67,000 jobs. The news is only half good since the economy needs to add over 100,000 jobs each month just to tread water with population growth. It becomes even less optimistic when one considers what happened in the public sector.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics realeased its June, 2010, jobs report, which clearly shows a worsening employment situation, even though the official unemployment rate dropped to 9.5 percent.

Total non-farm employment dropped by 125,000 thanks to the layoffs of temporary census workers. The private sector added 83,000 jobs -- good news and likely the angle the media will play up.

According to the March jobs report released by the U.S. Department of Labor, the economy added more jobs (162,000) in March than in any other month for the past three years. This is only small progress since the economy needs to add 70 times that many jobs just to get back to where we were in 2007, but it is a huge step in the right direction. If this continues for a few more months, I will be prepared to say that the recession is over (even though a lot of folks will still be out of work for a while).

Location

WTVM of Columbus, Georgia, reports that the numbers to be announced Thursday in Georgia will show the highest rate of unemployment ever recorded in that state. The only surprise here is that it took so long into this endless recession for Georgia to reach this point.