allisnow

Except that despite the fact that the economy has been in "recovery" for two years now, there has been almost 0 job growth, and there continues to be very little. In fact, companies are still laying people off and it's very hard to get a job.

Well, there's a difference between recovering slowly, as we have been for two yearsish, and actually turning a corner in the economy. This is the first big jump in some time now, but economists are hoping the next quarter numbers stablize in the 4% range. Sustained growth is what makes the difference in job creation, especially when you have unstable times and skittish prospective employers.

According to most economic models, if we really were in recovery, the economy would be expanding rapidly at this point either nearing another peak, or simply heading up. Thousands of jobs would have been added, and unemployment would be down significantly.

However, I think that for the past two years we haven't really been in a recovery, so much as a slow economic expansion, which explains the continued rise in unemployment.