A survey of economists indicated job growth in September would be about 63 thousand, which would be better than the zero growth in August.  Instead, the U.S. economy produced 103 thousand in total, about 137 thousand in the private sector and a loss of about 35 thousand in government jobs.

In addition, more jobs were produced in July and August than previously reported by the Department of Labor, about 99 thousand more!

Make no mistake, while this is better than expected, it is still not enough.  To maintain the current level of unemployment (9.1%), we need to create approximately 125-150 thousand jobs each month.  Although the hole didn’t get deeper this month, it didn’t really get much better either.  More interestingly, if you look at U-6 employment, which is the unemployed plus the under-employed (people who want to work full-time but are forced to work part-time), that number increased to 16.5%.  That tells me that things are getting better for the short-term unemployed but not the long-term unemployed, which may reflect a more systemic than economic problem.

Still, it was a good report, and we should celebrate . . . OK, that’s enough celebration . . . for now!