Jobless Recovery is Not Sustainable Recovery

There is a term being thrown out there right now that seems to be an oxymoron, jobless recovery.  There have been many positive signs in the economy recently.  Retail numbers are up across the board.  We had a pretty good holiday shopping season.  All the consumer confidence reports seem to indicate that people are no longer hoarding and may be dispensing they cash a little more readily, showing us that people are confident about the future of their own economic state.

In addition, there has been growth in the manufacturing sector indicating that companies feel confident that people will buy the stuff they make.  All good signs that we might be seeing an economic recovery in motion.  But the thing that can break this good momentum to economic health may be jobs. 

It's a very simple equation that I don't get why people who throw around terms like 'jobless recovery' don't get.  If people don't have a job, then they don't have money to spend.  It seems to be a clear cut correlation to me unless I'm missing something, which I'm not.  People are positive about growth and future earnings and that's why people are buying and producing, but the reality is, unless people have jobs to get them money, they will not spend it, and if they do as they are doing now, they will run out of it.