Employment data may be too good to be true [View all]

[xchrom]

http://economywatch.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/08/10611579-employment-data-may-be-too-good-to-be-true

&width=600
At first glance, the U.S. job market seems to be moving in the right direction, although at a crawl. When you take a closer look, some of the data showing improving conditions for job-seekers may be too good to be true.

The latest signs of improvement came Wednesday from a report by payrolls processor ADP, which showed the pace of job creation by U.S. private employers accelerated more than expected in February. Separate reports from the government showed wages rose much faster than initially thought in the fourth-quarter as worker productivity continued to inch higher.

The pace of layoffs has helped too, as seen in a slowdown in government jobs cuts, according to John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a job placement firm that conducts a monthly payoff survey.

"That's been a real driving force of layoffs over the last two years, but not in the last two months," he said.

On Friday, the Labor Department is expected to report that the economy created more than 200,000 jobs in February with the unemployment rate holding steady at 8.3 percent.

It's that last number - the portion of the workforce still out of work nearly three years after the recession ended - that remains stubbornly elevated.