While we continue to generate middle-class jobs, I would say we're doing so at a slower pace than we have in the past.
These results reveal the breadth of the unprecedented gap between the pace of overall economic progress and the returns to working people.
I've been pretty happy to see the pace of job growth in professional services.
Folks are coming back into the labor market, but they're not finding jobs there. The tepid pace of job growth was too low to keep unemployment from rising. We're looking at a fairly weak recovery, at least initially.
The problem isn't simply that families are facing higher prices, particularly at the pump. It's also that they're facing lower wages. If wages were keeping pace with inflation, the pinch wouldn't be as hard.