Don’t root for public-sector job losses

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

6. "The private sector is now growing at a pace greater than population growth,..."

and has been for most of the year.

Well, the year has just begun, so I assume you were referring to 2011. However, the pace of job creation is not a strong as it needs to be to keep pace with the growth of the working age population, and to reabsorb those who have been laid off.

Economists estimate the US economy must generate at least 150,000 new jobs a month just to keep pace with the normal growth of the working-age population, and most post-World War II recoveries from recessions saw new jobs being created at a monthly rate of 200,000 to 300,000 or more.

Long-term unemployment remained at near-record levels in December. The number of workers unemployed for more than six months fell by 92,000. But the total, 5.6 million, remains a barometer of social distress without precedent since the 1930s. Prior to the December 2007 official start of the recession (which supposedly ended in June of 2009), the monthly average of long-term unemployed was 1.2 million people. The share of unemployed workers who have been jobless for more than six months decreased somewhat in December, but remained at the near-record rate of 42.5 percent. By comparison, this figure for 2007 averaged 17.5 percent.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/jobs-j07.shtml