Another encouraging jobs report

For the third month in a row, the US added 200k+ jobs in February.  With upward revisions to data from earlier months, WSJ reports that we have added 1.2m jobs over the last six months.  This is the most impressive job growth we have seen since the end of the recession.

However, the labor market still has a lot of ground to make up.  Employment is still 5m+ lower than it was when the recession started.  The employment-population ratio also is 2 full percentage points lower than it was in 2008.  Unemployment held steady at 8.3% in February, but could very well inch up in coming months as people re-enter the labor force.