CLEVELAND METRO AREA "GAINED" 6,000 JOBS IN MARCH: The Bureau of Labor Statistics released their metropolitan area employment numbers for March this morning, as promised. The Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria MSA shows 1,100,500 nonfarm jobs for March compared to 1,094,200 in February and 1,090,300 in January. Good news, right? Except that the March number is 20,000 jobs lower than the figures for October, November, and December, as well as last May and June.



These numbers are not seasonally adjusted, and Cleveland seems to have an annual first-quarter slump, so it may be too early to see anything important here. Over the last full year (March 2003 to March 2004) the BLS shows a metro job gain of 8,600 -- about .8%. If this continues, we may see local employment through the Summer and Fall that's slightly higher than 2003 and 2002, but still 20-25,000 jobs below the 2001 level. Look at the Summer peaks in this longer-term line:



So is this a "recovery"? I guess it depends on whether you're one of the lucky 8,000, or the unlucky 20,000.