Just a follow-up chart to our weekend post, Job Creation: Reality v. Politics,  to reflect the sharp downshift in private-sector job creation.  The 3-month moving average of the monthly change in total private-sector payrolls is now at its lowest level since July 2012.

As we said, it is a difficult proposition to generate robust job growth with a shrinking labor pool and an unemployment rate at 3.5 percent, which we believe is a flawed and misleading measure of the true picture of the labor market.  See here.