National Review: Employment News Is Not That Bad

It would seem that the Corner Kids have been basically ignoring the news that the reported employment per the payroll survey fell last month – except for Ramesh Ponnuru:

Seems to me that everyone is making too big a deal out of the January jobs report. My local paper’s top story was the estimate that the total number of jobs fell by 17,000. If that estimate is revised later, to look better, I’m guessing it won’t be the top story. And such a revision is very possible. We supposedly had a decline in the number of jobs in August – later erased after revisions. The December estimate has been revised upward by more than 60,000 jobs.

There you have it. As long as the reported employment change is positive, all must be great. During the second half of 2007, average employment growth was a mere 82 thousand per month. I guess the nitwits at the National Review thought the labor market was roaring even as the employment to population ratio continued to fall.

I really cannot believe Ponnuru is this stupid. But I guess the operative assumption at the National Review that the readers are incredibly stupid still holds.