Blizzard?

Employment drops in a pink slip blizzard

That's the headline on a story by AP Economics Writer Jeannine Aversa about last week's employment report. Is it any wonder that a majority of the public believes the US economy is already in a recession?

WASHINGTON - In a shower of pink slips, U.S. employers cut jobs last month for the first time in more than four years, the starkest signal yet that the economy is grinding to a halt if it hasn't already toppled into recession.

A shower of pink slips? Um, the economy lost 17,000 jobs last month and when you consider that government cut 18,000, the private economy actually added 1000 jobs. Not a robust number to be sure, but "a shower of pink slips"? Hardly.

It's no secret that the economy is slowing but is it too much to ask the AP to just report the facts and leave the editorializing to the editorial page?