More jobs are coming. That's the rosy reassurance from Obama's economic adviser Lawrence Summers on the heels of Friday's news that U.S. unemployment remained steady in March at 9.7%.
Our weekly economic averages -- updated every Monday on our business page -- show just how difficult it is not just to halt job loss, but to spur true job creation.
Our Underemployment Index reveals that even when unemployment declines or stays steady, overall underemployment can increase, as we found in March. That's because some people simply shift from being wholly unemployed to having some work, though still less than they seek. We'll know we have true job growth when that larger underemployment number moves substantially lower.
Among the underemployed, hope for finding a new job within four weeks has barely budged since the start of the year. That's despite both good news and bad news here and there. Since this is a behavioral economic metric based on real job seekers' assessments, rational or otherwise, it will likely take real job creation -- experienced in terms of real job openings and real job interviews -- to narrow the sizable gap between hope and hopelessness.
Our Job Creation Index completes the picture, with working Americans telling us whether their own companies are hiring, letting go, or not changing the size of the workforce. Here again, we see the magnetic pull of the status quo -- with the index either just barely positive or just barely negative for months. That's an improvement from a year ago, but knowing that job creation exceeded job loss by double-digits when we first began tracking it 2008 reminds us exactly how long of a way we have to go.
Our Chief Economist Dennis Jacobe will, in the next few weeks, be launching his own blog to provide our readers with unrivaled insights into the state of mind U.S. job seekers, workers, and consumers based on the behavioral economic metrics Gallup tracks and analyzes every day.
In the meantime, to stay up to date on all of our employment and job creation tracking, sign up for ourbusiness e-mail alerts and RSS feeds.