The Cloud Has a Silver Lining?

With all the people lining up to shout doom and glom from the rooftops, I was a little surprised to see Barry Ritholtz's breakdown of the jobs recovery in this "technical" recovery. He says that we experienced the worst jobs loss since the recession, but that we're actually adding jobs from the worst part of the recession (the trough) at a faster rate than the previous two recessions.

If the economy is in recovery — a new cycle –  for the the past 13 (or so) months — “technical” or not — should we perhaps be looking at the employment situation relative to the trough now, and not to the last peak?  To be clear, I am not advocating hard one way or the other (though I will offer some thoughts in closing), simply pointing out that if the recession ended — as many, including the St. Louis Fed (see: Dude, Where’s My Recession Bar, Jan 2010, and St. Louis Fed Tracks Nascent Expansion, Mar 2010) –  perhaps we should now be looking at our experience from the trough?  This is more my offering an item for discussion than taking a stand on the issue — both sides have valid arguments. 

Both of the following statements are true, and neither contradicts the other:  We experienced the worst labor market recession since the Great Depression.  From the trough, the labor market is generating jobs at a faster pace than the previous two recessions.

 This doesn't sound like much of a "less bad" scenario. Coming out from the depths at a faster rate is a genuinely good thing.

One inference (mine, as promised):  Although we experienced the worst job-loss recession since the Great Depression, this has not been as job-less a recovery as many would have us believe.  It is demonstrably better than the past two recessions as measured from the trough.  Put another way, the labor market was in the deepest ditch it had been in for some 80 years and, given that, is actually doing a fairly reasonable job of climbing out, though the pace simply must accelerate if we are to recover all the jobs we lost in any reasonable time frame (and I can’t stress that final point enough).

Maybe we will get out of this mess, after all...