[Owen]

It's all about expectations. "Wall Street Economists" created the "expected" number, which was not met.

Well, either they are wrong a lot, or maybe they are wrong on purpose.

Economists are academics who went for money on Wall Street. They are usually liberal. Do not put it past them to orchestrate an anti Bush message.

But more likely, their firms want the expected number not hit so they highball it. Why do their firms want that? If job growth looks week Greenspan won't tighten and that keeps the market up and their mutual fund management fees and trading commissions up.

[Lazamataz]

It's all about expectations.

No it isn't. Not at all. There is a number we need to reach each month just to tread water.

And we are not reaching even that break-even point.

In the middle of a 'huge recovery'.

[dogbyte12]

The White House didn't help either here. They predicted an average of 306,000 jobs created a month in their economic forecast in January, which they now have backed away from big time.

Wall Street had nothing to do with the White House forecasting 2.3 million new jobs this year. It all is an expectations game though. Consumer confidence is going to get really ugly next month. The Dow is already down 58, Nasdaq 18 based on these numbers.

[Nataku X]

Nice idea, but the White House predictions were WAY higher than Wall Street's.