Strong Jobs Growth Is a Sign of Weakness

The U.S. economic expansion turns 6 1/2 years old this month, making it one of the longest on record. It is also the weakest expansion of the post-World War II era.

The labor market was slow to recover from the Great Recession, but once it did, employment has shown solid, uninterrupted growth since October 2010. In fact, job growth has been so consistently strong since then that the average monthly increase in nonfarm payrolls of 203,000 seems out of step with an economy limping along at an average 2.1% pace.