Catherine Rampell of the New York Times and Sudeep Reddy of the Wall Street Journal discuss the latest U.S. jobs report.

Catherine Rampell: Six months ago, this is about where we were, actually. for the last couple of years, and this year included, the year starts out with relatively strong growth, and then it kind of peters out. Obviously, 115,000 jobs added is better than 115,000 jobs lost, but that’s like saying, ‘it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.’

Sudeep Reddy: You have to remember in January 2009 — the worst month for the job market that we’ve seen in a long time — the economy lost 818,000 jobs in a single month. So we’re far, far, far away from that kind of disastrous performance. We’ve settled into this new period of persistent mediocrity in a way; we’re barely treading water. And it seems to be continuing at this same pace. It just doesn’t leave much hope for people who are looking for work and on the sidelines.

For more analysis, listen to the audio above.