>Where does one find the absolute number of jobs in the American economy,
>say by month, and the trend in that number? --CGE
The BLS does two monthly surveys, one of households and one of employers (the establishment survey). A person holding two jobs would count as one employed person in the h.h. survey, and two jobs in the establishment survey. The household survey is where the monthly unemployment figures come from; the establishment survey is where the headline number ("the U.S. economy lost 55,000 jobs in April...") comes from. The establishment survey is a very large sample - 300,000 establishments, compared to 60,000 for the h.h. survey.
You can get historical stats for both surveys through <http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm>. The "A" tables are the household, the "B" the establishment.
Doug