Need Higher Monthly Job Growth To Return Employment To Pre-Recession Levels

Posted by Milton Recht:

From Brookings, "Should the United States Have 2.2 Million More Jobs?" by Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney:

Specifically, there are 2.2 million fewer jobs today, relative to what would have occurred with the policy response typical of the five preceding recessions. We also continue to explore the "jobs gap" and find that the country needs to add about 10.0 million jobs to return to pre-recession employment levels.
***

Source: Brookings

If the economy adds about 208,000 jobs per month, which was the average monthly rate for the best year of job creation in the 2000s, then it will take until April 2020 to close the jobs gap.