Job Growth: Industry Imbalances and the Slow-but-Steady Recovery

USA Today published an article on how the U.S. service sector has regained nearly three-fourths of the jobs it lost during the recession. In contrast, the goods-producing sector has only regained 15 percent. But a closer look at the service sector reveals that job growth has not been equally distributed among industries. Legal services, for example, has recouped 17 percent of job losses, whereas accounting firms have regained 87 percent.

Another article posted on CNN Money suggests that recent national data may be understating economic growth. While the pace of U.S. hiring has dropped since last year and other recent indicators have shown little cause for excitement, some economists suggest that the economy is not weakening but has, in fact, been consistently growing...although at a painfully slow rate. The full article has more details, and a recent post of ours also explores jobs numbers and seasonal adjustment in detail for Oregon.