US job market recovery stalled in March, halting streak of major gains

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/220275-job-report-misses-expectations

The economy added 120,000 jobs in March, well below what economists predicted, while the unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 8.2 percent.

The number is nearly half of the 210,000 expected and ends the streak of three straight months when the economy added more than 200,000 jobs, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.

The news isn't what the White House would want to see just as the labor market seemed to be improving at a faster pace.

With the economy remaining a top issue for voters, any preception that its growth is slowing down could hurt President Obama's re-election effort.

will be overjoyed.

http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/06/11039018-government-job-losses-dragging-down-growth?lite

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The economy has been adding jobs lately, but not government jobs.

More than half a million, local, state and federal jobs have been cut since the recession ended in June 2009, according to an analysis released this week by the Economic Policy Institute.

That's the opposite of what happened following the previous three recessions and could be part of the reason why this recovery has been so weak, particularly when it comes to jobs. The government reported Friday that the unemployment rate fell slightly, to 8.2 percent in March, as the economy added 120,000 jobs, much fewer than had been expected.

Despite the government job cuts, more than 20 million people work in the public sector, making it a key part of the overall jobs picture.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-06/u-s-local-governments-cut-payrolls-to-lowest-level-since-2006.html

U.S. local-government payrolls fell to the lowest level in more than six years in a sign that municipalities still face fiscal strains almost three years after the end of the recession.

Employment by local governments, adjusted for seasonal hiring swings, dropped by 3,000 in March to 14.1 million, the lowest since February 2006, the U.S. Labor Department reported today. State payrolls helped offset the loss, showing a third straight month of gains, rising 2,000 to 5.1 million. It’s the longest streak of job increases at that level since 2008.

Municipalities, which depend largely on property taxes, are probably cutting jobs because the housing market is still rebounding and homeowners are pressing for lower assessments, said Alan Schankel, a managing director at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia. State governments, which depend more on income and sales taxes, have also cut local aid to balance budgets in the wake of the recession that ended in June 2009.

“It’s kind of a double-whammy,” Schankel said in a telephone interview today. “There’s still stress at the local level.