Most economists surveyed for the Wall Street Journal 's monthly forecast see a net job increase coming over the course of the next 12 months. The Journal's Phil Izzo points out that this is the first time in over a year that they have projected job growth. As a group, the economists still expect unemployment to top 10%--so that job growth is going to take a little while and things are going to get worse in the labor market before they get better. The survey shows relative optimism for growth in the coming months, with a prediction of 3% growth in the current quarter. Here's a look at the GDP projections over the course of the recession: Click here for interactive versions of the Journal's helpful graphics and charts associated with the forecasting survey. Given that we are at the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, one of the more interesting questions on the latest forecasting survey was whether the government should have saved the investment banking giant. Most of the economists who responded to that question thought the government made a mistake. Kelly Evans and Phil Izzo discuss that and other aspects of the survey in this video: Read the accompanying article on the survey here .
Filed under: recession, treasury, GDP, unemployment, growth, Phil Izzo, Kelly Evans, Fed, Wall Street Journal economists forecasting survey, job growth, Lehman Brothers collapse, labor market