A top White House economics spokesman cautions against reading too much into a single month of employment data — and we concur: One month isn't enough. So how about 44 months instead?

'Today's employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression," Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said on Friday.

But no matter how the White House tries to spin it, August's jobs data, in perspective with the preceding 43 months, were terrible.