The headlines said unemployment, as measured by the "establishment survey," was down by 190,000; and even though that was slightly worse than forecast, market bulls were cheered by the fact that the number was not as bad as last month's. It is an improvement that we are not falling as fast.
The total (U-6) employment rate is at a record high of 17.5% (this includes those who are part-time for economic reasons). There are now over 10.5 million people who have lost their jobs since the beginning of the downturn.
"… the second LARGEST two-month total EVER posted, barely trailing the December-08/January-09 total 1.955 million.
John also covers some solutions for our present situation that have been tried in other locales, from Austria to Argentina, if you want to read further.