NPR economic reporter Chris Farrell says the jobs report released today means the economy is picking up steam. Farrell spoke at UW-Superior this afternoon,

Joe Gilotti reports.

"It was a good jobs number. If you look at 2012, averaged 188,000 a month, so this is a big jump going to 236. This is the first time in a long time we’ve had that kind of number.”

“As you look more closely at the numbers, you always get a slightly mixed picture where some people deciding I’m not going to be looking anymore, and so they’re no longer counted in the unemployment number.” :

Even so, Ferrell says a 7.7% unemployment rate is too high. He says state and federal budget cuts are hurting. “The private sector is actually doing pretty good on the hiring front, and a lot of the job losses are on the state and local government sector We haven’t seen the effect of the sequester yet in the number, but we’re going to have people losing their jobs on the federal level.”

Ferrell says this is a sustainable recovery.

“I am actually pretty pers onally optimistic about the job market. I think the job market is going to come back, but it’s going to take a long time for the wage market to come back.”

Ferrell is a correspondent for NPR and writes for BusinessWeek.

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