A report released by the Labor Department contends that economic expansion has been due to actual hiring, as opposed to fewer rounds of layoffs. The Labor Department says there are new jobs - that hiring at the end of last year was the strongest since June 2002 and that employers have recently added to payrolls in earnest. Economists said the data suggested a movement away from years of employer reluctance to add new workers.
See "The Word, at Last, Is In: Jobs Are Being Created", Jennifer Bayot, The New York Times, August 18, 2005