The sad truth behind yesterday's unemployment numbers

[ProSense]

35. Doesn't this

While an upward revision to the fourth quarter GDP data turned a negative 0.1% into a positive 0.1%, the economy still only grew at a 1.6% annual rate in the second half of 2012. Apart from the uptick in construction, there are few good reasons to expect much of an acceleration from this growth rate. And contrary-wise, the ending of the payroll tax cut will pull more than $100bn a year out of the economy. The impact of this tax increase was just being felt when the February jobs survey was taken in the middle of the month.

The other big hit to the economy will be from the sequester, which will pull roughly $80bn in federal spending out of the economy. The forecasts from the Congressional Budget Office and others show the sequester slowing growth by 0.5-0.6 percentage points. The economy has not even begun to feel the impact of these cuts, most of which will not start to make their effects felt until April.

...run counter to the argument against the payroll tax cut. Supporters argued that it would stimulate the economy until the recovery took a better hold. Ending the payroll tax cut was planned.

Still, Baker does cite a bit of good news:

The one genuinely encouraging piece of news in the February employment data is an uptick in wage growth. Over the last three months, average hourly earnings rose at a 2.85% annual rate, compared to the prior three months. If this continues, it would imply that workers are actually seeing real wage gains. Unfortunately, this increase was likely driven by some state minimum wage hikes, and by the sort of random movements that causes these data to fluctuate erratically. But this is an item that the optimists can look to for hope.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/09-4

This is why increasing the federal minimum is crucial.