Remember: the magic number is 200,000

Note: this story was posted/linked earlier. In that post, the emphasis was first-time unemployment benefits claims: higher than expected.

This post is from the same story, the same link, but a different emphasis: new jobs.

 Employers added 120,000 new jobs to their payrolls in March, the least since October, after averaging 246,000 jobs per month over the prior three months.

"We seem to be chasing our tail with the labor market now with seemingly reported declines in weekly numbers coming from persistently higher levels week-after-week," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economist strategist at Miller Tabak in New York. "Today’s reading also gives the uncomfortable drift upwards in initial claims the feel of a trend rather than aberration."

Trend?

Regardless, adding 120,000 new jobs after averaging 246,000/month for the past three months is a dismal data point.