Early read on jobs report

February's numbers - 651,000 lost jobs and an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent - pretty much match the bleak expectations of economists. Perhaps that explains a significant run-up in stocks at the opening bell (Dow is up 130 points after 20 minutes). But it can hardly be classified as good news - just another sign of a slow recessionary slog. A total of 4.4 million jobs have disappeared since the recession began in December 2007, and almost half of those occurred in the last three months. From the NYT:

Economists worry that mounting job losses could make it harder for homeowners to make their mortgage payments, triggering another wave of home foreclosures, which would further depress home values and the mortgage-related securities owned by major banks. “We’re feeling the negative fallout from the intensification of the financial crisis,” Mickey Levy, chief economist at Bank of America, said. “We’re in the middle of the worst stage of job losses as well as the speed of contraction of gross domestic product.”

Another not-so-great sign: Results for December and January were revised to show much steeper declines. The December revision to 681,000 was the biggest number of lost jobs since 1949.