3 mil, 3.5 mil jobs lost ? Can anyone answer this damn question?

[Room101]

I keep hearing and seeing different figures of total net jobs lost under AWOL. Can anyone give me a current link of the current number?

[Gulf Coast J]

1. See if this helps...

The establishment survey of the BLS is usually what is used to measure the number of jobs. From here: http://www.bls.gov/ces/home.htm , click on 'Create Customized Tables (multiple screens)' and go on to non-seasonably adjusted, total nonfarm, all employees, total nonfarm, 2000-2003 (or whatever you want), and then BAM, you get your table.

(Edit: See below for why these aren't the best numbers to use)
In thousands:
Jan 2001 - 130433
Oct 2003 - 131071(p)

Edit: It would probably be better to use seasonally adjusted numbers, which show a loss of 2.3 million jobs.

In thousands:
Jan 2001 - 132436
Oct 2003 - 130132

[IMayBeWrongBut]

2. Also at one point

at one point in July it was as bad as

In thousands:
Jan 2001 - 132436
Jul 2003 - 129846

which was almost 2.6 million...

[Zynx]

5. It is around 3 million private sector jobs, but Bush has actually....

socialized the economy. He has created hundreds of thousands of government jobs.

[alcuno]

3. What really matters is that 1 new job has not been created.

We add 125,000 new workers every month and have not created one new job to a growing population.

[IMayBeWrongBut]

4. So that means

we need 6.5 million jobs created to have an employment environment similar to 2000...