March 09, 2012 06:10 PM UTC

What a Recovering Economy Looks Like

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• by: Colorado Pols

AP via 9NEWS, the story today on every channel:

U.S. employers added 227,000 jobs in February to complete three of the best months of hiring since the recession began. The unemployment rate was unchanged, largely because more people streamed into the work force.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 percent last month, the lowest in three years.

And hiring in January and December was better than first thought. The government revised those figures to show 61,000 an additional jobs…

Nearly a half-million people began looking for work last month, and most found jobs, the report said. That’s a sign of growing optimism in the job market, as many people who had given up on looking for work come off the sidelines to search for jobs.

Politico reports that Democrats might actually try to drive home a coherent message this time:

Three years ago today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its financial crisis intraday low of 6,440. Look for top Democrats to begin talking about how far we have come since then.

The talking points will go something like this, per a top Dem: In the three years since hitting its crisis bottom, the Dow has doubled. By March 2009, household wealth had fallen to the lowest level reached during the recession – wiping out gains over the five years beforehand. Since then, households have rebuilt $8 trillion in net worth, an increase of over 15 percent.

We still have not fully recovered from the damage that was done by the financial crisis – and jobs remain the top concern — but this milestone seems important to note – especially as it undercuts the argument from those who say the President’s policies (i.e. Wall Street reform) have stifled growth.

If you’re a Democrat, the combination of a rapidly improving job market and economic outlook, and a well thought-out political message about this economic recovery–contrasted against the gloom and doom predicted and even reveled in by the GOP since the day Barack Obama took office–has got to make you happy. This is where the Jimmy Carter analogies break down.

And the same recovery could put doomsaying Republicans in an unenviable position.