During the month of May the U.S. economy added 69,000 jobs, a figure that is below what is common during a non-recessionary period.

On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release the June employment report. Current market expectations are that the U.S. economy added 100,000 jobs during the month of June. Even at this level, 100,000 jobs would only be close to the the average number of jobs created during the U.S. economic expansion from December 2001 to December 2007. It would be well below the average of past economic expansions.

In the image below the monthly number of nonfarm positions added or lost per month are charted. In addition the average number of jobs added over the course of an economic expansion are noted in green, the average number of jobs lost over the course of an economic contraction (recession) are depicted in red.

Since the recession ended in July 2009, the U.S. economy has added a net 2,506,000 jobs, an average of nearly 72,000 per month. Over the course of the Great Recession, January 2008 to June 2009, the U.S. lost a net 7,479,000 jobs, an average of nearly 416,000 per month.

If the U.S. expansion is to be robust, the economy will have to add more than the 72,000 jobs per month that it has over the past three years.