Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, said he is "not seeing a ton of sunshine" in Friday's job report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in a CNBC segment.
JOE KERNEN: Jared, every month both sides always have something. You guys, Democrats, have the 8.1 and, by all indications, it, looks like it could be a 7 handle by the time there’s an election. But I know, as a former labor expert, you don't like 115 and you don’t like even being above 8, right?
JARED BERNSTEIN: No, you're exactly right. I’m just not seeing a ton of sunshine in here. I get your point on the tick down in the unemployment rate but it's not the kind of tick down we want to see. Look, I appreciate your introduction, because while it's always tempting in this town to go to the political space, my whole career, decades in this business, I think the thing that’s mattered most to me because I’m focused often on the middle class and low-income people, is labor demand. And we are stuck with labor demand that is just too darn weak. And you can talk about some wiggles in the numbers, and it’d be great to be around 180 as opposed to 130 or 120. But in fact I thought we were into a bit of a slog even before this downshift over the past couple of months. So, I'm not pleased with what I’m seeing.