Jobs and people

Please don’t fall into the trap of yaking about:
• How Obama is not getting credit now that the market is coming back;
• That the rate of job losses going down is a sign the economy is coming back;
• That the market has bounced back and the banks look better;
The unemployment rate in this county is 8.9 percent. There is still a lot of unraveling yet to be felt. And a lot of permanent losses to absorb.
For the most part each lost job represents a significant moment in the life of some individual. Last month nonfarm payroll dropped by 539,000. Since December 2007 when the recession began, more than 5.7 million jobs have been lost.
So, cool the happy talk just because the Dow passed 8500. At this point, that’s one number that’s pretty meaningless.