BLS report is here. 112,000 new payroll jobs, not as good as previous months, but still rising. Oddly, the household discrepancy is back, showing 259,000 more people employed.

Payroll employment is still 1.2 million short of the all-time high in March of 2001. To make the 2.7 million job figure for 2004 would require an average of 239,000 new payroll jobs each month until the end of the year. Possible, but IMO highly unlikely. Adding the more sedate average of 112,000 jobs each month would bring the total by December to 131,973,000, still about 762,000 jobs short of the 2.7 million number, but a total of 1,938,000 new jobs for 2004, which doesn't suck either.

Household employment continues at an all-time high, with over 1.2 million more people employed than the previous pre-recession peak of January 2001. Unfortunately, nobody cares.