The new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has some discouraging news for the economic recovery, which had been picking up steam as of late. The economy added only 120,000 in March, about fifty percent of the previous three-month average of 246,000.

The even more worrisome parts:

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over)
was essentially unchanged at 5.3 million in March. These individuals
accounted for 42.5 percent of the unemployed. Since April 2010, the number
of long-term unemployed has fallen by 1.4 million. (See table A-12.)

The civilian labor force participation rate (63.8 percent) and the
employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were little changed in March.
(See table A-1.)

The unemployment rate stooped slightly to 8.2%, the lowest in three years, but that's largely due to the number of people who dropped out of the labor force out of discouragement. The unemployment rate only calculates people who are trying to find a job but are unable to; those who don't bother aren't counted, but represent a more troubling constituency. The static long-term unemployment rate and the slight raise in labor force attrition are both signs that the recovery is not addressing the long term damage of the recession.

This is offset by what those in the business call a U-6 metric, which tallies the true unemployment rate including discouraged workers, part time or intermittent workers, and so on. The U-6 fell by .4 percentage points, to 14.5 percent, though as Ezra Klein points out, these modest gains are barely enough to keep pace with monthly population growth.

Expect the LBS to revise the numbers up next month, as they did for February, which means this isn't quite as dire as it looks. Still, it suggests that for all the economy is improving, it's a mild and superficial recovery at best.

Also, under the Jennifer Rubin Formula, whereby Any Event x A Jennifer Rubin Column = Mitt Romney, these numbers equal Mitt Romney. 

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Related: Unemployment Drops to Four Year Low

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