Spending cutbacks by state and local governments, and teacher layoffs in particular, have been a big story during the past several years. So one interesting nugget from today's jobs report is a strong labor market for teachers.
There were 12,000 net new hires in local government education, plus another 1,300 in state government education. That puts us well above where we were, teachers-wise, a year ago reversing the trend that held for many years since the 2008 crash.
