The March jobs report out this morning was about as close to what was expected as you can get without cooking the books: 192,000 net new jobs (the consensus expectation was somewhere just south of 200,000), the unemployment rate unchanged, small upward revisions of the January and February jobs numbers. Workforce participation levels and hours worked were both up a bit, which was a refreshing change. But the experts are telling us the March numbers were still affected by winter weather, so next month will be the next test of the economy’s strength.
We already know that the “recovery” is little more than a technical term for the long-term unemployed and for those who haven’t received a real boost in income in quite a few years. But that won’t be changed in any one month.
