[Wyatt's Torch]

Don't confuse weekly claims numbers with the non-farm payroll additions. Hundreds of thousands of people are hired and fired every single week. Normal labor market churn. The NFP additions are NET job additions (hirings less firings - from a different data source than initial claims). As far as the number of jobs, here is the chart showing where we are relative to the pre-recession peak:

We are about 2.6 million below the pre-recession peak and up 6.2 million from the trough during the last recession.

[expat_panama]

up 6.2 million from the trough during the last recession.

True, and if only we'd been up 8.3 million we be barely keeping up with population growth. 

We haven't so we aren't.